We were lucky to catch up with Yafei Liu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Yafei, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I used to have a vague resistance to places like Chinatown and Chinatown. I can feel the absurdity in my photos in DC, Chinatown, and Flushing. It’s like pasting two perfectly balanced paintings together, and it’s hard to say how twisted it is. Imagine the old men we often see sitting around playing chess on the side of the road in China being moved to a city park in New York, with tables and people, American-style buildings in the background, and flocks of fat pigeons feeding around them. If I had taken a close-up of the clothing and accessories shops scattered along the street in the style of late last century China, and added a time filter, I might have suspected that the photo was taken in the old Luokou Clothing City. This is not China, this is not the United States, and this is not New York, even if I see Chinese character everywhere, their special fonts and typesetting will not make me feel familiar and intimate. Many Chinese see pictures of New York’s Chinatown and comment, “These people don’t blend in with local life!” “Chinese people should stay together less.” It’s kind of a loose concept. How do you fit in? Eat burgers and fries every day? Dress in American style? Or do you only communicate with the locals in English and deliberately minimize your social contact with your compatriots? But what’s the point of such integration? How can the gathering of Chinese people in a foreign country, where they are from the same roots, become something to be criticized? What’s to be laughed at for having a strong English accent? It’s just a tool for us foreigners to communicate.
I was born and grew up in China; my first language is Chinese; I can write Chinese characters fluently; I am used to thinking in the so-called “Chinese way”, I don’t know if this is labeling myself, but so far I have no problem with that. The race has always been a hot topic involving political correctness in the United States. Now, as I tread on this land with the mark of “I”, I feel its contradictions and struggles more tangibly.
I don’t think America is anywhere near the cultural melting pot like I thought it would be. It’s more like a mixing salad, where the food is put in a bowl and tossed with a thick dressing, which eventually blots out the flavors of the ingredients and tastes delicious, but it’s all mind-numbing oil and sugar.
Staring at Flushing, the Chinese quarter, I was looking at goldfish in a shiny plastic tank. In the plastic container, all the culture deeply rooted in one’s heart that one should be familiar with becomes the object to be watched. I couldn’t tell whether it was sarcasm, sadness, or panic at being left out and having nowhere to hide, but I couldn’t do anything about it except joke with my friends. I drew these feelings into Goldfish.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My affection towards art is mainly attributed to (1) its function of expressing strong emotions derived from my mental illness or unique experiences; and (2) the idea of “speechlessly” shouting out for the vulnerable groups or minorities like myself by creating expressive and infectious art works coupled with both narrative power and esthetic beauty. In fact, it is always exciting to know what I am doing really makes a difference through visual art forms as a silent but powerful medium in helping others. In order to help more people with traumatic sufferings through more impactful and sophisticated art works, I decided to pursue my master’s to further improve the expressiveness and interaction of my art works as well as to explore the possibilities of integrating interdisciplinary knowledge (e.g., psychology, philosophy and health science) into my personal style. I have been exploring diverse topics in emotion narration and expression. Particularly, I am fascinated in expressing strong and impactful emotions, especially negative emotions such as uncontrollable pain and anger caused by mental illness. This special area of interest can be related to my long-suffering eating disorder (ED) and anxiety chronically controlled by medications. The turmoil from the bottom of soul at onset has inspired me in exploring and expressing feelings in art forms for the increasing number of people who has similar trauma from mental illness, which can be demonstrated by (1) my experience in working for ED Healer Public Account as an art editor&designer; and (2) my art works “Falling Falling” in expression of the extreme feelings of loneliness and helplessness widely existed in the contemporary society. Besides, as a minority in US, I have been constantly impacted by different cultures from around the world which makes me almost in the state of aphasia at certain point of my life, which “forces” me to think, adapt, and then express accordingly in my art works (e.g., “Goldfish” which depicts my compounding feeling of the my own culture and traditions as minority culture being difficult to blend in mainstream culture and a sense of being watched as “a gold fish in the tank” by the majority).

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an illustrator is creating my own voice to shout out what I want to say. Art brings uncountable possibilities to visualize subjects. No matter if I want to express my emotion, or tell a funny story happened in daily life, illustration can always be a path to express and share to people. It’s also a rewarding and blessing to get the resonances from the audience.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

-Protecting the copyright with law, this is the priority. -I know too many artists are struggling with low salary and high workload, lots of illustrators have to work in multiple place to afford their daily expense. I think the society should appreciate more on artists’ work, especially for illustrators.
-Artist’ physical and mental health should be another point to be noticed. All illustrators I know and I are ill with back and neck, which will be a long-term harm.

Contact Info:

• Website: fayeliu.com
• Instagram: fffaye_l