Ain't Made of China
Experimental Video
4-minute
2025
The artist uses archival materials to explore the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the first U.S. law banning immigration based on race, later targeting all Asians until 1952. Rooted in racism, economic anxiety, and labor unrest, it framed Chinese migrants as "unassimilable," leading to violence and shaping racial notions of "Americanness" on stolen land. The work examines how exclusion and belonging connect to colonial legacies from the 16th-century Age of Discovery to present-day white supremacy and border politics. It questions what it means to be Chinese globally, analyzing empire, migration, and identity through post-Cold War debates like Fukuyama's and Huntington's, and reclaims narrative agency via Elizabeth Fisher's "carrier bag theory,' envisioning alternative futures of humanity and coexistence.
