Perpetual Shuttling: An Investigation into Design for Chinese Diasporic Identities in Negotiation

In a global context, the conventional markers of identity are challenged and problematized. Although the dominant narrative in Western culture is Anglo-Saxon, the increasingly multicultural nature of Canadian society gives rise to a continual mapping of diverse cultures and identities. Historically, the Chinese Canadian diaspora was essentialized and constrained in its development and problems of alienation, invalidation and marginalization persist to this day. Furthermore, this community is no longer as monolithic as it once was and there are challenges in even defining it. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining postmodernist and post-colonial cultural theories with visual artifacts in an effort to embrace the cultural identities of the Chinese Canadian diaspora. Perpetual Shuttling is a subjective visual narrative of the Chinese Canadian community of which I am a part. The artifact uses images from my personal archive, which embodies the de-territorializing of Chinese-ness. Perpetual Shuttling expresses the temporary, fragmentary, and ambiguous qualities of diaspora lives, while also asserting a self-proclaiming stance in the discourse of Chinese Canadian diaspora identity and culture.