A celebration of the power of the arts, cultures and togetherness: a panel on Being Asian in Aotearoa

A recent sold-out panel discussion hosted by the Centre for Arts and Social Transformation (CAST) mused on these questions of identity and belonging, attempting to unravel how the arts can help to bridge the gap between cultural roots and life in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Renee Liang, a paediatrician, poet and playwright shared how people “won’t accept certain answers such as ‘Mount Albert’ to the ‘where are you from’ question. 

She says: “identity is not fixed. It depends on where you stand in relation to the other person who’s asking you that question. In fact, the question of where you belong is not fixed either. It is always in relation to what’s around you and whose land you are standing on.”

Ying Wang, research fellow, therapist, poet and visual artist took another approach, highlighting the importance of the question in a Māori cultural context. She said she uses the ‘where are you from’ question in her clinical practice.

“At the beginning, I didn’t know how to answer. But then I found it a really great way to connect with people. I’ve observed that especially with Māori culture, at first Māori generally don't really want to know who you are. They want to know where you are from knowing which land you connect to, and which mountain you connect to.

“I use that as an element in my therapy work, and to introduce who I am and show that I am proud of my culture.”

Ying says she found that it became a way to empower her clients by understanding where they are from. She says one client said her Chineseness had helped him.

“He said that because of his childhood trauma, he was really trying to distance his own culture, but witnessing my passion and wanting to connect to my Chineseness made him want to connect to his Māori culture.”

All the panellists shared examples of how their artistic practice has empowered them to embrace and celebrate their cultural identity. 

Renee shared an example her play The Bone Feeder, a fictional account of a real-life shipwreck of a ship which was carrying 499 bodies of Chinese who had died in New Zealand. The play's impact extended beyond the stage, as real families of the deceased individuals heard about it and felt compelled to meet the community that had looked after their ancestors.

This unexpected real-life connection added a layer of significance to the play, turning it into a bridge between the cultural keepers of memory and the descendants seeking their roots.

Emeritus Professor Manying Ip discussed the role of tangible objects, such as gold or paintings, as expressions of cultural identity. She also highlighted daily expressions like tea drinking and gardening, emphasising how these practices connect individuals to their heritage.

“Of course, all of us invariably, whether we are from an Eastern culture, or from any other culture, other than New Zealand, we bring objects with us, which are important and are meaningful. They may not be of our own creation, but they are of importance to us and are the links to our home culture.”

Dr Ying Wang spoke of her love for art and two works that particularly enabled her to find her voice as an artist and as an Asian New Zealander. She shared ‘100 Asian faces I met/ 百面人生’ a project that involved Ying creating portraits of 100 Asian New Zealanders, some of whom were in the audience, and this was how Ying initially met the other two panellists. The project was born out of frustration and anger when her own daughters faced discrimination at school due to their Asian faces.

The 100 days project became a powerful way to share the stories of Asians from various subcultures, challenging the notion of a one-size-fits-all Asian identity.

The second piece Ying Wang discussed was an embroidered self-portrait. In this piece, she sewed her own self-portrait on canvas. She sewed her mouth up and gave the piece the title ‘Shut Up’. The artwork became a metaphorical representation of breaking free from the constraints of her accent and finding her voice. Ying says the artwork was a way of expressing herself despite “the stubborn accent” and helped her to “open her mouth”.

The panel was convened in celebration of the Lunar New Year 春節 as well as to launch CAST Research Fellow, Dr Ying Wang’s recent book Moving Between Cultures Through Arts-Based Inquiry: Re-membering Identity. The book was described by panel chair Professor Selina Tusitala Marsh as “a mixture of this deep, sensitive research-based inquiry and art and her poetry and her artwork is infused all around it.”

The evening was an illuminating korero on the complexities of ‘being Asian in Aotearoa’ and the challenges of moving between cultures with Renee noting “many of us in this room will know what it's like to stand with one foot on either side of a border, or many borders…maybe that rockiness and belonging is part of what drives us to keep on doing what we're doing. So maybe there's a usefulness in not belonging as well.”

The overall tone was positive, with all panellists embracing the potential of the arts to navigate ‘between-ness’. Ying Wang said “I think that the future generations need to focus on the power of art, how it can bring people together. I'm a research fellow and I'm an arts-based researcher. Because of my experiences, I can see how powerful art is to enable me to speak. Now I use the power of art to work with my community, the vulnerable community, to give them voices.”