What is Looking Back?
Mal Pina grew up as an American, and reflects on
the issues that affect Chinese-Americans in our culture through
her art. The art piece Looking Back, is
a collage of many images that reflect events in her life. In
the background of the picture is a map of the region of Guangzhou
in China,
where
her part of her family heritage originated.
Between the iconic Chinese person in the straw hat and the map
is an immigration Cerificate Of Identity.
These images tell a story that occured
when her family visited China when Mal Pina was a little girl.
During this time the Cultural Revolution was taking place, and
her parents wanted to bring her grandmother to America to protect
her from the
Chinese government. When they were in China the government was
suspicious of all Western visitors because the communist government
resisted Western influences and Americans of Chinese heritage.
She recalled the fear her family felt during this time because
her family was visiting China as American citizens although they
had gained that status illegally.
Mal Pina's family became
American citizens as "paper
sons." The San Francisco
earthquake of 1906 destroyed many immigration records. Many
Chinese people
used this event to claim
that they were American-born citizens because the Exclusion
Laws prohibited them from citizenship unless they were born in
the United States.
The Certificate
of Identity is
a metaphor for Mal Pina's sense of not being Chinese, but not
really
being fully accepted as an American. The immigration papers given
to
her by her family represent the conflict that Chinese immigrants
experienced when coming to America and living between
two cultures.
Although she was taught art in Western schools her individual
message crosses the boundaries of East
and West to explore the
conflicting realities experienced by many Chinese-Americans living
in our country today.