Visualizing Chinese Americans: An (Auto)Ethnography of Making Meanings through Art as a Chinese American

Pingting Tu
Art Market Studies

About this Item

Title
Visualizing Chinese Americans: An (Auto)Ethnography of Making Meanings through Art as a Chinese American
Contributor Names
Tu, Pingting (Author)
Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. Art Market Studies (Degree granting institution)
Tombro, Melissa (Thesis advisor)
Degen, Natasha (Thesis advisor)
Date
2022
Degree Information
M.A. Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York 2022.
Department: Art Market Studies.
Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 84-08.
Advisors: Tombro, Melissa; Degen, Natasha.
Committee members: Melton, Paul; Carlson, Brooke.
Abstract
Despite more than a century of living unequally to the rest of the country, most Chinese immigrants have chosen America as their diasporic home. While Chinese Americans have been a part of the making of America as a country for more than two centuries, America has not been telling the full story about Chinese Americans and their experiences in the land of dreams. In my essay, I am using my personal experiences as a Chinese American as the launchpad of the research. I draw on a combination of historical and theoretical research to analyze Chinese identities in American society and the evolution of Chinese and Chinese American art and how it is situated in the American art scene. I aim to discuss the contemporary Chinese American experience through an autoethnographic lens using three Chinese American artists at different stages of their careers: experienced, mid-career, and emerging. I used interviews and field studies to learn about these artists. Through this paper, I study how they settle and fit in the contemporary art world to understand their perspectives on topics like success and tradition related to being Chinese American and how this identity migrates into their artworks. Whereas Chinese Americans have been largely portrayed as victims of the American historical narrative, though it is not untrue, I attempt to tell the stories of little ordinary triumphs achieved by Chinese Americans, including myself to reshape the perception of us and celebrate us as "dreamers", "doers", and "achievers".
Subject
Art
History
Asian Americans--Study and teaching
Art--Study and teaching
Asian Americans
Autoethnography
Chinese Americans
Art, Modern
Ethnography
Rights
In Copyright
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Identifier
FIT Repository ID: etd_000912
pqdiss: 30246510
ISBN: 9798371972088
Related Materials
Also available from ProQuest
Type
Text
Thesis
Language
English
Publisher
Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,

Citation

Tu, P. (2022). Visualizing Chinese Americans: An (Auto)Ethnography of Making Meanings through Art as a Chinese American [Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York]. FIT Institutional Repository. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/28908
Tu, Pingting. Visualizing Chinese Americans: An (Auto)Ethnography of Making Meanings Through Art As a Chinese American. 2022. Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, Master's thesis. FIT Digital Repository, https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/28908
Tu, Pingting. "Visualizing Chinese Americans: An (Auto)Ethnography of Making Meanings Through Art As a Chinese American." Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, 2022. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/28908