Food Treasure Series ( Watercolor & Acrylic painting)

This series reflects the anxiety I have experienced as a foreigner living in America and adapting to its culture. In examining this matter, I choose food as the subject because it is not only the essential in our daily life, but also an entry point for foreigner to understand an unfamiliar culture.  
These paintings deal with the duality of classical Chinese and contemporary American culture, fine art and food, high and low aesthetics by joining Chinese antique porcelain wares with American food in a surrealistic way. The juxtaposition of two cultural references also sets up a subtle and opposite tension of hard(raw)vs soft(cooked), inedible vs tasty, ancient vs modern yet a unitary form which ask : Do the two cultures fight each other or can they merge?     

Treasure Series (Lithograph & Watercolor) 

The series explores the conflicts of American and Chinese cultures in a broad content. I use watercolor and lithograph to combine Chinese antique porcelain wares (from Ming and Qing Dynasty) with American household objects, regional and national iconic images to present the complementary of classical Chinese and contemporary American culture, fine art and functional, high and low aesthetics. With a surrealistic approach, I attempt to communicate this idea in a humorous way.