The boundaries of reality are the area of play…

Dear Friends and Family,

The Chinese magazine “Hope” (希望）just published an article on the female genitalia project in its March issue (2008). I thought it would never make it with the hypersensitive attitude of the government with the coming of the Olympics, but here is the article.

When I was in India this past winter, a 22-year old freelance journalist called Riva contacted me from Shanghai about doing an article on the project. She had read about it on a well-visited art and culture blog in China (the blog continues sending me traffic until this day even though much of the message of the project is unfortunately distorted as censorship prevents people from viewing the video in China). She explained to me that the readership of Hope is mostly cosmopolitan, independent-minded young women, and could I please talk about my artistic intentions to China’s youth? I was equally intrigued. Besides being a freelance journalist, Riva is also a successful entrepreneur and owns her own boating magazine. She is truly the exemplification of what I find so incredibly exciting and refreshing about today’s China.

In the article, I talked about growing up in Communist China in the 80’s, migration and displacement, the Chinese diasporic experience, how I arrived at the idea of the project, difficulties that I encountered, reactions of the models and the public, recent fads in plastic surgery for the vulva and my experience working with plastic surgeons, my ideas of feminism and female fulfillment… She’s even run a small advert for interested models at the end of the article. For the Chinese-literate, all of this is obviously self-explanatory.
Much love,
Chin-Chin