The exhibition WE ARE IMMIGRANTS explores the hidden hardships and legacy of early Chinese Canadian immigrants from the mid 19th century onward. It also celebrates their resilience in overcoming immense adversity and their contribution to Canada in solidifying the country’s confederacy.
Archival images, texts, historical novels, and personal interviews have collectively informed Raeann Kit-Yee Cheung’s imagery sources and interventions. The color yellow (a stinging label yet also the seed of the artist’s identity) is a reclaimed as a celebratory symbol for all Asians and is ingrained in the series to emphasize Asians as one of the earliest settlers in Canada. Chinese immigrants are an integral part of Canada’s military history and economy, and should therefore be celebrated with confidence.
Anti-Asian sentiment is but one form of discrimination inherent in every society. The COVID pandemic merely accentuated its pervasiveness. Only through understanding of Canada’s past can one truly appreciate its diversity. This exhibition encourages a wider and continuous discourse, keeping this history alive for present and future generations.
This exhibition was curated by Ash Slemming and is being circulated by TREX SW through the Alberta Society of Artists in Calgary, Alberta.
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 here,” Raeann states, “I continue to feel like a foreigner.”
Having immigrated almost five decades ago, Raeann has come to accept that she is neither Chinese nor Canadian, but rather someone who embodies an ambiguity and a 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, which act as an anchor on which she contemplates melded identities to resolve inner complexities. She holds a Master of Arts in contemporary photography from Falmouth University (UK) and currently lives, works, and plays on the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation, the Îyâxe Nakoda, and Métis (Region 3).
