Note: I decided to publish some of my writing on the internet in hopes that it might help heal some of the lingering intergenerational trauma. If you decide to reference this paper, let me know! I’d love to read your research (yes, even if it is critical of what I wrote). I’d also like to note that this was written very early during the graduate program for a module assignment. I’d like to eventually expand on these thoughts.
Threaded Together: From Dublin to Swatow
Written by Jinny Ly (April 2021)
From the clothes we wear to the chair seats that we sit on, we interact with textiles on a
daily basis without the need for instructions. Due to the prolific existence and extensive function
of textiles in our everyday lives, “they are written into the structure of society like a language, [...]
that is essentially non-discursive” (Bristow, 2007). As a result, textiles were not only “fundamental
to the very formations of societies'' they were also fundamental for “the artistic expressions vital
to cultural cohesion, namely individual adornment and outward affirmations of group beliefs and
identity” (Shoeser, 2012). Some cultures have ethnic outfits like the qi pao is to Chinese culture
as the áo dài is to Vietnamese culture. These outfits provide a visual link between the physical
cloth and national identity, representing a group of people through the treatment of textiles
(Evenson, 2010). Cloth, broken down to its simplest form, is a series of interwoven threads;
where these threads are like individuals who in turn make up a community.
The community I’m familiar with as a second generation Teochew-American, was that of
the Vietnamese Boat refugees who settled into Chinatown in Oakland, California. There, Dad
and Grandpa worked at the family noodle restaurant while Mom worked, and Grandma and
Great Grandma minded the house and family. Just downstairs, across the street, were cafes,
bakeries, jewellers, markets, and restaurants, an entire community, created by fellow Teochew
people who shared our story, journey, and reality. As part of the social and psychological features
of Teochew people, the further they are from the homeland, the stronger the solidarity (Cheng,
1997). Our clannishness has a word, gaginang, meaning “our own people” in the Teochew
language.
The meaning of gaginang goes beyond the lexicon and into an unspoken set of traditions
and responsibilities that are embedded into Teochew culture. For example, respect for our elders
and the familial hierarchy are reinforced everyday through specific mannerisms and the use of
titles. Older siblings are referred to as hia (兄), meaning older brother, or jeh (姐), meaning older
sister. If there are multiple older siblings, then differentiators are given such as dwa (大) for the
eldest, yee (二) for the second eldest, or soi (小) for the youngest of the siblings. These titles are
then extended to the individual’s friends or associates. For example, if the oldest brother, dwa hia
(大兄) brings home a friend, the friend would be referred to as hia (for a male) or jeh (if the friend
is female) due to their association to the dwa hia. To call the older brother’s friend by their name
is considered rude, as it elevates the younger sibling’s position in the family to that of the oldest
brother’s position. Even though these traditions seem archaic and confusing, they provide a
framework for conduct and establish inherent respect in Teochew culture.
After growing up in a tightly knit family and community, moving to Europe put me in a new
situation where I sought out familiarity, and it was during an outing to Paris where I found it --
gaginang. After the United States and Australia, France resettled the third largest group of
Vietnamese boat refugees (Boutroue et al, 2000) -- a percentage of which are of Chinese origins,
Teochew. As of 1997, there were about ten million Teochew living in Teochew, China with an
equal amount living overseas, with approximately 100,000 Teochews in France (Cheng, 1997),
specifically the 13th arrondissement of Paris, also known as Chinatown. After the Uncle learned I
was on my own, he introduced me to his daughter, extended his resources to me and told me if I
ever needed anything, to give him a call.
The experience in Paris Chinatown was not isolated as I’ve experienced the same
community support in Ireland, albeit on a much smaller scale. The phenomenon of coming
together collectively wasn’t limited to a singular location. So what is it about the Teochew
diaspora that makes the bonds of community so strong? Why do they congregate and seek each
other out and is this unique to just Teochew culture? Having grown up in the Teochew diaspora
and lived amongst Vietnam Boat Refugees, my interest lies in exploring the value of collective
identity for the individual. In order to explore these themes of identity, we need a starting point for
the understanding of the individual and collective identity.
One study by Alberto Melucci, Italian sociologist who has been studying collective identity
for the past twenty years, describes identity as a process of continual construction, selection, and
adaptation. As such, individuals find themselves shifting the boundaries of their identity as they
see fit, accommodating any changes they might perceive to better describe themselves. Melucci
goes on to define collective identity as the way individuals act together and come together to
form a common ‘we’. In another study, collective identity is also described as a social construct
with distinct rules and boundaries determined by a group of individuals (Eisenstadt & Giesen,
1995). Just as the individuals determine the boundaries and definitions of the collective identity,
the way threads come together determine the cloth to be made.
Considering the use of textiles, there are two contemporary artists who use thread and
embroidery in their exploration of identity that interest me. Lin Tianmiao is an artist based in
Beijing, China, who uses sculptural textile installations while incorporating photos and digital
media to explore self-identity, cultural understanding, and politics (Chiu 2012). The interest I have
in Lin’s work is the non-representational use of thread in installation and combination of textiles
with photography, sound, and video; which moves textiles beyond function and into the
sculptural/dimensional. Thread is front and center throughout her work but it’s not the only
feature. In this image The Proliferation of Thread Winding (1995) (see image below), if the thread
were removed, the installation would be underwhelming and missing the intensity of the
scattered balls. The tension created in the simplicity of wound thread, coupled with the natural
draping in the drawn thread, literally and figuratively gives gravity to the piece. In All the Same
(2011) and More or Less The Same (2011), a series of silk-wrapped bones addressing all of
society (Merlin, 2018), she moves beyond the white color palette and into multicolored silks. She
is precise and intentional with her use of color and emphasises that color is “an element you
cannot use without careful consideration, otherwise it will interrupt the purity and order of the
artwork” (Chiu, 2012). Lin’s work perfectly balances the simplicity of thread and its composition
with the weight of her themes.
While Lin shifts from individual to collective identity through textile installation and
personal themes, multimedia artist Tiffany Chung also progressively shifts her narrative from the
individual to the collective within the themes of war, displacement, and politics. My interest in
Chung’s work lies in her display of research and abstraction of data to narrate individual and
collective stories of refugees, specifically relating to the Vietnam War. In her show Vietnam, Past
is Prologue (2019) at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., Chung brings
together video, photography, illustration, and painting to highlight stories of Vietnam War
refugees, from departure to resettlement (Ardia, 2019). By highlighting the individual stories
through data, visual media, both digitally and physically, she ends up defining the collective
identity of Vietnamese refugees.
Inspired by treatment of thread from Lin, and the strategic use of the archive and data
from Chung, I’m conveying my research through textile installation, photography, and potentially
digital media such as sound and video. In order to explore the value of collective identity for the
individual, we’ll have to explore and understand the relationship between individual and collective
identity. Melucci describes individual identity as “enmeshed by multiple bonds of belonging
created by the proliferation of social positions, associative networks, and reference groups”
(Melucci, 1995). Words such as “enmeshed”, “multiple bonds”, and “networks” are reminiscent of
webs, drawn lines, and nets. With these word associations in mind, I’ve decided to use knotting,
crochet, and other simple forms of thread manipulation to convey the relationship between
individual and collective identity.
Alongside textiles, photos from the family archive will be used to refer to a moment in time
and to lend a face to the Teochew diaspora. Although journalistic archival photos of refugees
fleeing Vietnam exist, I’m interested in showing what photos remain after three generations of
displacement and forced emigration due to war and famine. For example, one family portrait (see
next image) shows my mother at age three, alongside Great Grandmother, Grandpa, and
Grandma. The original photo was taken in 1967, survived a war, and made it to California where
it now sits at the family home. In this case, the journey of the photos parallels the journey of
those captured in it. Using photos, like the one shown below, in the textile installation brings forth
the tension and contrasts between the weight and intensity of the photo’s journey versus the
natural state and composition of the materials.
The LAM Family
Circa 1968
One of the earliest surviving family photos that survived the Vietnam War.
From left to right, top to bottom:
Grandma, Grandpa, Mum, Great Grandma
In the interest of experimentation, video and sound will be incorporated into the
installation as a complement to the balancing act of textile and photography. I want to document
the creation process through a series of photos taken in the studio. Towards the end of the
project, the photos or video will be digitally stitched together to create a time lapse of progress,
allowing the audience to see a compacted timeline of work being made, drawing a parallel of my
own journey to that of previous generations.
The bonds and relationship an individual has with their community is like that of the
thread and cloth. Textile’s non-discursive narratives and historical roots allows for visual
expression of individual and cultural identity, making it an ideal medium to explore the
relationships between individual and collective identity. The incorporation of photography will
provide some weight and substance to the physicality of textiles as I explore the value of
collective identity for an individual. The beginning of this thread starts in Dublin and leads all the
way to Swatow, China.
References
Ardia, C., 2019. Vietnam, Past is Prologue: Tiffany Chung at the Smithsonian American Art
Museum - Art Spectacle Asia. [online] Art Spectacle International Asia. Available at:
<https://artspectacleasia.com/vietnam-past-is-prologue-tiffany-chung-smithsonian/> [Accessed
01 April 2021].
Boutroue, J., et al., 2000. The State of The World's Refugees 2000: Fifty Years of Humanitarian
Action - Chapter 4: Flight from Indochina. [online] UNHCR. Available at:
<https://www.unhcr.org/en-ie/publications/sowr/3ebf9bad0/state-worlds-refugees-2000-fifty-years
-humanitarian-action-chapter-4-flight.html> [Accessed 21 April 2021].
Bristow, M., 2007. Continuity of Touch - Textile as Silent Witness. [online] Available at:
<https://maxinebristow.squarespace.com/s/Continuity-of-Touch-Textile-as-Silent-Witness.pdf>
[Accessed 27 March 2021].
Eisenstadt, S. and Giesen, B., 1995. The Construction of Collective Identity. [online] JSTOR.
Available at: <https://www.jstor.org/stable/23999434> [Accessed 3 April 2021].
Evenson, Sandra Lee. "Dress and Identity." Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion:
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Bloomsbury Fashion Central. Web. 20 Apr. 2021.
<http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/BEWDF/EDch10007>.
Cheng, C., 1997. Chaozhou People and Chaozhou Culture. [online] JSTOR. Available at:
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/44289219> [Accessed 10 April 2021].
Chiu, M. and Xiaoyan, G., 2012. Bound Unbound: Lin Tianmiao. Milan: Charta.
Melucci, A., 1995. Individualization and Globalization: New Frontiers for Collective Action and
Personal Identity. [online] JSTOR. Available at: <https://www.jstor.org/stable/43294389>
[Accessed 8 April 2021].
Merlin, M., 2018. Lin Tianmiao 林天苗 | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at:
<https://www.tate.org.uk/research/research-centres/tate-research-centre-asia/women-artists-cont
emporary-china/lin-tianmiao> [Accessed 01 April 2021]
Schoeser, M., 2012. Textiles. London, United Kingdom: Thames & Hudson, Ltd.