The Lived Experiences of Female Chinese Canadian Artists: An Arts-Based Visual Narrative Inquiry

Grounded in narrative inquiry and arts-based research, this qualitative study examines the complex ways in which female Chinese Canadian artists conceptualize their hybrid, transnational, and plural identities and how they represent themselves in their art practices. It explores what pursuing a career in the arts mean for Chinese Canadian women and the ways they see their practices in relationship to cultural roots or family values and Western values. Using data from interviews, an arts-based collage creation focus group, and an image-based visual narrative inquiry focus group, three artists interpretation of their race, ethnicity, and gender labels are revealed through storytelling about art production, the pieces they create, and how they think viewers see their work, and consequently their identity. The results show that generalizations cannot be made about Chinese Canadian women, who feel that they are often unknown or misknown due to homogenization based on race, ethnicity, or gender.