Artist Spotlight: Ada Chen
I remember begging my mom as a kid to let me bring Lunchables to school for lunch, instead of dumplings, because I wanted to fit in at school. I didn’t realize it was a common experience to feel a pressure to reject your heritage to assimilate into American culture until years later, where I felt a lot of guilt for doing that. Now that I am much older and wiser, I wish I had known that I was not alone in my struggles of growing up with immigrant parents and existing between cultures. This is something that I still struggle with as an adult, because my Chinese parents have expectations of me that conflict with my own desires. Being Chinese American is its own identity that needs more representation and discourse, so that Chinese Americans can come to terms with our complicated identity.
One artist that is elevating the experiences of Chinese Americans is Ada Chen. Born and raised in San Francisco and now working in New York, Ada Chen is an artist and jewelry maker that confronts the dynamic of the complicated Chinese American identity with her quirky humor. Ada’s particular and niche artwork combines social commentary and cultural references, allowing Chinese Americans to relate and feel accounted for. Her work uses recognizable cultural items like Hot Cheetos, mooncakes, iMessage texts, and Chinese slippers to promote Chinese culture and/or to point out issues facing Chinese Americans.
Hot Chinitos is a statement about “the way that the U.S. sells the Asian image,” by comparing it to the overused and widely produced products like Hot Cheetos chips.
One of Ada’s jewelry lines is a play off of the “made in China” reputation. Why are the “made in China” labels associated with being cheap and undesirable? Despite the fact that exporting production is a cost saving measure for American manufacturers, there are some Americans who view products of Chinese labor as cheap. This creates a negative impression that all things from China are cheap in nature-even Chinese Americans. Additionally, this creates the false perception that Chinese laborers are stealing American manufacturing jobs. Xenophobic and racist incidents often lead to the phrases “go back to China” or “go back to where you came from.” However, there are quite literally Chinese Americans who have not ever stepped foot in China, or who were born on American soil.
The negative association of “made in China” is not only wrong, but damaging. To combat this stereotype, Ada Chen has made a new jewelry line called “Made in Chinese America.” By imitating the sticker appearance, Ada removes the shame of the made in China status. Instead, Chinese Americans such as myself can proudly wear our identity. Furthermore, it highlights that although our ethnicity may be Chinese, not all Chinese Americans have strong ties to China. We should be able to identify with both our Chinese and American heritage without denying the other. “Chinese America” covers all spectrums of the Chinese American experience, and it acknowledges our unique identity.
Ada Chen, Made in Chinese America jewelry (2019)
Ada’s other metal work is a mouth grill with the engraving in Chinese “speak Chinese, we are in America.” Her reversal of the common xenophobic and racist phrase “speak English, we are in America” is in a way confronting her own internalized xenophobia, something that I think many can relate to. For me, it was the all shameful feeling after getting stares when my parents converse in Chinese too loudly in public, or the confused looks when service workers try to interpret my parent’s broken English. Ada reminds us that speaking Chinese is something to be proud of, and the placement of it on a grill is a quirky and clever way to convey that.
Ada Chen, Speak English, We’re in America (2017)
Ada Chen’s work is important, because it is a contribution to Chinese American representation in a country that often overlooks this group. Growing up, I felt like I had to choose between my Chinese side and American side all the time; I wish there was more sentiment encouraging me and other young Chinese Americans to embrace both sides. I hope that more Chinese American artists, writers, and content creators will join Ada Chen in expressing the complexities of the Chinese American culture.
-Written by CHSA’s Fall 2020 Education Intern, Shirley Lai. Shirley has a B.A. Degree in Integrative Biology and History of Art from UC Berkeley. As a young Chinese American born to immigrant parents, she wants to see more representation and writing about the Chinese American experience. She hopes to contribute by creating her own content and also supporting CHSA.
