2020

flipping back through these blogposts, of my art, of my character, of the contents of my life, i am amazed to see how true and relevant my thoughts were to today. How early i was already celebrating women, women in business, how passionate i came across on a certain cause, on spirituality, on friendships, and on hong kong.

2016, Hong Kong, Acrylic Paint on Canvas

Her

Chinese Dalmatian | Acrylic Paint, September 2013

Her attitude and elegance is missed.

Reference photo from Vivienne Tam Biography

Architectural Renderings

Next Campus

Art at Stanford needs three things to grow and thrive: community, identity, and accessibility. Our scheme is based on centering in on these three traits by building an Art Park for West Campus, broadcasting student talent in form of one-storey of glass pavilions arranged throughout a spatial plane. These glass pavilions will serve as performance, exhibition and studio spaces portraying as a sculpture in itself on the ground plane. The paths and pavilions are governed by two axis: the central axis (an extension of SEQ quad) and the Governor's ave axis (the gateway to the undergraduate housing community). With precise arrangement, our quad allows…

Music Venue on Waterfront

Work in Progress!

Manifesto of the Third Culture Kid

“A third culture kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background, other TCKs.” –Ruth Hill Useem, American Sociologist and Anthropologist, 1993
 

The Third Culture Kid in Watercolor May 2013

1)  To effectively integrate aspects of a birth culture (the first culture) and a new culture (the second culture) to establish a personalized "third culture”, we have no other choice but to adapt to the majority.

2)   Upon our entry to a new destination, we must start as an infant — with an alert mind, a clean ear and a fresh tongue.

3)   Inevitably, we will lose our initial beliefs and hid our values (gained from birth culture) for the purpose of strengthening and regaining them on our next embarkation.

4)   Remove all native accents to fully immerse in the local slang. We must dress “up” if they dress “up” and we must dress “down” if they dress “down”. We must pretend to fit in to fit in.

5)   Let us belong to a group whether it is academic, business, or social.

6)   All TCKs live a shared identity and take no ownership in any one culture. Although we understand the present culture better than the average, we can learn most through our agreements and disagreements with other TCKs.

7)   If we are lucky we shall have a sense of home here.

8)   While time will leave us with an incomplete network, it will spare strong relationships.  Our task is to reject the “Out of sight, Out of mind” syndrome.

9)   We always have an urge to travel and contradict ourselves in our wish to settle down. We must accept that we do not have one but multiple identities

10)   One day, we will return to our birth country knowing that we do not share the same values and modes of thinking as our peers.  We will let go of our identities again and learn as a foreigner

Heritage 1990

Forbidden City,  Beijing. Chinese character "understand" with a poetic extra stroke.

Wake up see the new Beijing 2013, watercolor  

My time in Beijing this past fall may have been life-changing and redirected me to the place i should be. I came home with an understanding of the mainland and with it i removed all bias and my skeptical mindset. I hid a lot of me over these eight years in america and yes it was necessary to forget parts of my heritage to fit in, change, adjust whatnot. but now that i am comfortable in my yellow, i don't mind rolling down my windows and blasting asian music. it only seems natural.

Shanghai, it won't be long!

Chun 春

Summer time is nice and hot, now my life is sweet like vanilla is. Seasons have changed twice since i last wrote; from a Parisian winter to a cali spring to summer in hong-kong; now i write from bed number 3.

If only i was stuck on an airplane between time zones between places i need to go, i would sit and mold and won't even feel the slightest guilt about laying there doing nothing. 

someone says there's always a season in life to do a certain thing, but i've always wanted to do two, three, four things at once. Possible or impossible. people say i am still young, but i feel like there's no more time. change or don't change. I’m not sure yet at this point.

The ride home marks a new season for me and the ride back is also a different one. Each debark is a new start and a clean slate to do what you’ve thought about for the last 16 so hours. As if you were to combine a dozen of Mondays to mark a new change. I’ve got about a month left until I take my next one and I’ve already got a long list of changes. Tiring? Yes, and very necessary to breakdown and re-adjust myself like play-doh.

I’m running out of planes to catch. School’s almost over and soon everything will be settled. And seasons will blend, changes harder to make.

春 means summer. 春 means youth.

Apologies for the long delay. I finally completed the painting for the beloved Chun Family: Judith, Tom and Punky based on an old family portrait, amazing how baby punky chun got her sass on.

Chun Family Portrait in Acrylics Aug 2012

C'est moi

http://humsci.stanford.edu/faces/story/xiaoze_xie