TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO:

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So, my grandmother gave me this clothing. She told me that her mother had made it for her and then like she passed it on to me. So, her grandmother would have made it for her back in China and then she took it with her to which went to Taiwan, and then to Canada. 

 

So, it's like a pant and shirt set. It has like the same like neckline as the Chinese dresses do, but it's not like super tight. It's not like a formal dress, it's just meant to be worn like around the house or like doing groceries or just like a very casual clothing. But I like that, because it's like, you know, we always focus on like the formal wear, we don't think about just like what you wear at home and that feels more intimate to me, I guess. 

 

They're moving from their house into an apartment now. So she's trying to get rid of stuff. So, every time I go there, she's like, ‘Oh, take this, take this.’ I kind of like it because it's like a matriarchy lineage thing. We also discovered that I'm the exact same size as my grandmother was when she was my age. Like, she has these other dresses that are like the ones that are like really form fitting, and they fit me exactly. 

 

It affected my art because I was like thinking about those types of topics, like history, roots, and the idea that this fabric had been like touched by my great grandmother, my grandmother, and I guess it's that history of human touch, and the history of family that felt like really special to me. 

 

So, I guess the story with her migration is that she came from a wealthier family in China. But then with all like, the revolutions and everything, her household kind of like, turned on her. That's what I was told. I don't know all the details, but her mom was away teaching in Japan and my grandma was actually born in Japan because her parents were like working there, going to school there, or something. And then they allowed my grandmother to escape to Taiwan, basically, because she was pretty young. And then in Taiwan is where, like, she met back up with her mother. And she met my grandfather there when he was like pretty poor, in the military, so, her mother didn't approve. So, when they got married, they were kind of like starting from nothing. Then my mother was born in Taiwan and then they moved to Canada in 1967 when all the like, Immigration Act stuff was repealed. And they did the whole, you know, immigrant, working so many jobs, supporting your family, and just like, you know, working hard until they could build something.

I really think that material has a human touch, history. So, it's kind of like, when you wear something that was worn by your grandmother, like you feel that, like you feel that, like I don't want to say like a spirit in it, but kind of like that. And I think it just makes you like more contemplative of where your family comes from. And just realizing that like these are the people that like you come from, and imagining how they would have felt, and what they went through, and not even in like a super traumatic like, 'Oh, my family's come so far!' but even just a little things like being at home, just in domestic life. Just thinking of them as like, you know someone who had the same thoughts as you, maybe, but in a completely different context.