Luka Yuanyuan Yang is a visual artist and filmmaker working across documentary film, photography, installation, and performance. Her practice, characterized by interwoven documentary and archival materials, addresses themes of identity, migration, and memory, challenging conventional historical narratives and amplifying overlooked voices. During a year-long research trip across the US in 2018, Yang was captivated by the rich history of migration and adaptation in America’s Chinatowns. From 1882 until the 1950s, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act and racial discrimination, Chinese Americans were largely confined to Chinatowns.

During this same period, Yang began researching the stories of Chinese women in 20th-century American performing arts, inspired by the legacy of Anna May Wong and seeking to uncover the experiences of other Chinese women performers whose stories have been forgotten or misunderstood by history. Yang’s exploration of these neighborhoods, the Chinese diaspora, and performing artists has become the central focus of her feature film Chinatown Cha-Cha, and her recently published artist book Dance in Herland. Yang’s protagonists – performers, activists, and dreamers – speak through oral histories, photographs and embodied memory, revealing layered experiences of migration, displacement and cultural survival. Together, the works invite us to consider how stories are constructed – and who has the power to tell them.

https://www.lukayangworks.com/

In this event, the feature film Chinatown Cha-Cha (2024) will be shown. The screening will be followed by an artist talk on her research and an open discussion between all participants.

Schedule:

15:00-15:10 Introduction

15:10-16:40 Screening of Chinatown Cha-Cha

16:40-16:50 Break

16:50-17:30 Artist talk+open discussion