ABSTRACT
Citizenship as a process of political and cultural affiliation is stitched and bound into the work of first-generation American-born Chinese artist and poet Flo Oy Wong. Her drawings, mixed-media assemblages, and installations serve as visual and material testimonials of her own self-fashioning as "American," her family's history, the history of Chinese in the United States, and other immigrant experiences. In 1882 the United State (US) Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This legislation halted the legal immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States, yet continued to welcome Chinese officials, merchants, teachers, and students. Chinese immigration to the United States became legal, and Chinese immigrants were allowed to become naturalized citizens. Wong's rice sacks, brocade, US flags, and other found fabrics materially invoke Chinese and Chinese American history, culture, and experiences, interwoven with themes of memory, voice, tradition, and loss, as well as dislocation and relocation.
