RAEANN CHEUNG - EXPOSURE EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHERS SHOWCASE

WE ARE IMMIGRANTS - The Hidden Hardships and Legacy of Early Chinese Canadian Immigrants explores a muted suffering that early immigrants endured as economic migrants from mid 19th century onward. This series also celebrates their resilience in overcoming immense adversity and their contributions that solidified Canada’s confederacy.

Research in archives, texts, historical novels, and oral histories have collectively informed the selection of my sources as well as my interventions. Charred bubbly markings, for example, symbolize numerous deaths unaccounted for in construction accidents. Splattering across a face or a group mimics the experience of public humiliation and torment. Dark holes signify the lacunae and the depressed states of mind from loneliness and segregation. Bright holes elate the migrants’ economic success despite hardship and adversity.

The color Yellow, a stinging label yet the seed of my identity, is a celebratory symbol for all Asians. It is ingrained here to emphasize Asians as one of the earliest settlers in Canada despite being made to feel otherwise. Liken the confident man with the yellow scarf or the yellow trees firmly rooted at the storefront, Chinese immigrants are part and parcel to Canada’s military forces and economy. Notwithstanding scramming gestures, the Chinese should be encouraged to stay.

Anti-Asian sentiment is but one form of discrimination that is inherent is every society. The COVID pandemic has merely accentuated its pervasiveness. While racism remains relentless in some places, I am encouraged that it is now considered unacceptable etiquette. Only through understanding of Canada’s past can one truly appreciate its diversity. My hope for this work is to encourage a wider and continuous discourse, keeping this history alive for present and future generations.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Raeann Kit-Yee Cheung is a photographer who leans on a dual heritage to create work that is both personal and universal. “No matter how long I have lived in Canada, I continue to feel like a foreigner. Yet, I am a visitor when I am in Hong Kong.” Having immigrated almost five decades ago, Raeann has come to accept that she feels neither Chinese nor Canadian but rather an ambiguous and evolving richness that neither ethnicity can possess alone. It is this duality that informs Raeann’s work, a form that accentuates a common yet subdued theme among many Chinese Canadians. Preferring to work through long slow processes, Raeann finds refuge in her methods that act as an anchor on which she contemplates melded identities to resolve inner complexities. She holds a MA in contemporary photography from Falmouth University and is a board member at The New Gallery. Raeann lives, works, and plays on the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations).