http://dialoguemagazine.com/index Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:30:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Dialogue Magazine yes http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/2009/11/21/mixed-race-tv-contestant-ignites-debate-in-china/ http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/2009/11/21/mixed-race-tv-contestant-ignites-debate-in-china/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:32:39 +0000 Dialogue Magazine http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/?p=1947 http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/2009/11/21/mixed-race-tv-contestant-ignites-debate-in-china/feed/ 0 <div class="KonaBody"><p>By Louisa Lim</p> <p>President Obama’s arrival in China on Sunday is being eagerly awaited by many people, especially one young woman in Shanghai. Lou Jing is of mixed race, with a Chinese mother and an African-American father. She became famous nationally after her participation in an American Idol-type program sparked a spate of vitriolic online racist abuse.</p> <p><img src="http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/loujing-450x337.jpg" alt="loujing" title="loujing" width="450" height="337" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1948" />For Lou, the reality television show turned out to be a lesson in brutal reality. The talent contest is called Go! Oriental Angel, and the 20-year-old made it through preliminary rounds to become one of 30 contestants.</p> <p>Lou is studying for a degree in television anchoring at Shanghai’s prestigious Theater Academy, and her teachers thought it would be a good opportunity. But from the very first, the focus was on her skin color.</p> <p><strong>Spotlight Cast Ugly Shadows</strong></p> <p>Introducing Lou, the host said, “her chocolate-colored skin lights up her sunny character.”</p> <p>In a short yellow satin frock, Lou launched into a rap she had written to introduce herself to the audience. In retrospect, this moment probably marks the end of Lou’s innocence — and the start of a process of questioning her own identity.</p> <p>“When I was young, I didn’t really know I was different from other people,” she says. “It was only after entering the competition that I realized I was different from others.”</p> <p>The show drew attention to her background, which is very unusual for China. She was raised in a single-parent family by her Shanghainese mother, who is a teacher. Her African-American father, whom she has never met, returned to the United States without even knowing he had conceived a child in China.</p> <p>On air, her mother, Sun Min, said she had only ever had one conversation with Lou about her father. She described how her then-7-year-old daughter had asked about him.</p> <p>“I didn’t answer and immediately started crying,” Sun recalled. “From then on, Lou Jing never asked again.”</p> <p><strong>Painful Fallout</strong></p> <p>In her two months on air, Lou was nicknamed the “Chocolate Angel” and the “Black Pearl” by the media. She wasn’t bothered by these names, she says.</p> <p>But online, the poison pens were venomous. Chinese posting messages on the Web criticized her skin color as “gross” and “ugly”; they called her shameless for appearing on television. The worst insults were reserved for her mother for having had a relationship with an African-American out of wedlock. Lou and her mother are now suing one Shanghai newspaper for libel.</p> <p>There were online statements of support as well, but the verbal attacks stunned Lou.</p> <p>“I looked at the posts and I cried. Then I didn’t look at them anymore. I decided I would do my best to go abroad to study,” she says.</p> <p><strong>The Obama Parallels</strong></p> <p>Before, on the street, people might say things like, ‘How come she looks like that?’ But that was just a small number of people. When I was younger, I thought life was beautiful. Why is it that now I’ve grown up, I don’t think that anymore?</p> <p>- Lou Jing, 20-year-old Shanghai woman whose mother is Chinese and father is African-American</p> <p>Lou sees Obama as a motivational figure [...] By Louisa Lim President Obama’s arrival in China on Sunday is being eagerly awaited by many people, especially one young woman in Shanghai. Lou Jing is of mixed race, with a Chinese mother and an African-American father. She became famous [...] http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/2009/06/24/elizabeth-catlett/ http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/2009/06/24/elizabeth-catlett/#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:39:48 +0000 Dialogue Magazine http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/?p=487 http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/2009/06/24/elizabeth-catlett/feed/ 0 <div class="KonaBody"><p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-506" title="sharecropper" src="http://dialoguemagazine.com/index/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sharecropper1-450x262.jpg" alt="sharecropper" width="450" height="262" /></p> <p>Elizabeth Catlett has said that the purpose of her art is to “present black people in their beauty and dignity for ourselves and others to understand and enjoy.” As a sculptor and printmaker, she blends figurative and abstract traditions with social concerns, and has maintained a deep belief in the democratic power of printed art to reach a large audience. She has completed some eighty prints in woodcut, screenprint, lithography, and, most importantly, linoleum cut, a technique she learned at El Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop). This renowned workshop and artists’ collective was first visited by Catlett while she was in Mexico City on a fellowship in 1946. The workshop’s aim is to continue the Mexican tradition of socially engaged public art. It specializes in linoleum cut, as it is a technique that is easy to work with, produces inexpensive prints, and can accommodate large editions.</p> <p>Catlett’s attraction to Mexican printmaking reflects a social and political concern she shares with the great muralists. Like them she uses her art to advance causes of particular interest to her, including the African-American experience and the plight of the lower classes. Many of her prints show the multidimensional aspects of women as mothers, workers, and activists. Sharecropper evokes Catlett’s belief in the strength and dignity of the working poor, while it also offers a heroic portrait of this anonymous woman. She also depicts great women from African-American history, including Harriet Tubman, who is shown here leading slaves to freedom as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. Catlett’s continued support of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s is visible in the print completed after Malcolm X was shot and killed. It expresses Catlett’s enthusiasm for the leader’s successful efforts in inspiring pride in African-American women.</p> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 329px"><img src="http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_79931_488735_elizabeth-catlett.jpg" alt="Torso" width="319" height="480" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Torso</p></div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 305px"><img src="http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_79931_488736_elizabeth-catlett.jpg" alt="Motherhood" width="295" height="480" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Motherhood</p></div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 315px"><img src="http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_79931_50362_elizabeth-catlett.jpg" alt="Elvira" width="305" height="480" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Elvira</p></div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 587px"><img src="http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_424646353_318253_elizabeth-catlett.jpg" alt="Door of Justice" width="577" height="480" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Door of Justice</p></div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 321px"><img src="http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_424646353_230608_elizabeth-catlett.jpg" alt="New Generation" width="311" height="480" /><p [...] Elizabeth Catlett has said that the purpose of her art is to "present black people in their beauty and dignity for ourselves and others to understand and enjoy." As a sculptor and printmaker, she blends figurative and abstract traditions [...]