This is Ciara Liu, I just turned 20 earlier this year and I’m from Hong Kong. My major is fashion design, about I also love arts and crafts.
Throughout the first year of my college life as a Parsons student, I have explored my potentials, found my interested, and learned about myself further. While looking through all my works over the past year, I have found some similarities and consistencies in them. Due to my family background, I was always very conscious of my heritage. Therefore, for many of my works, I have put a lot of emphasis on learning about myself and my culture as a Hong Kong person as well as Chinese. The term Chinese and Hong kongers have been confusing me ever since I was a child due to the tension and conflicts between the two places. I was confused about my identity as someone raised in both cultures, similar yet so different. The theme of heritage and Asian culture appeared several times throughout my entire first year at Parsons, more so in the spring semester than fall. In the fall semester, I took drawing and imaging class, and in one of my projects, I incorporated ancient Chinese calligraphy into my digital collage. The project was to practice the skill of gradient in photoshop and make our own gradient palettes, below was what I did:
For my Object as history class last semester, I also wrote a comparison paper on Japanese Kimono and Chinese Ruqun, the similarities and differences of the two types of clothing. This semester, I also focused on my heritage and wad even more eager to dig into it. I wrote an argumentative paper on Lotus shoes, the foot binding shoes in China, I also made shoe designs inspired by Lotus shoes for my studio class, not only so, I brought the studies to my other classes. In space and materiality class, we made ambulatory devices, and I made a pair of shoes that are based on lotus shoes. I learned about the designs, meaning behind specific colors and even the method of making this type of shoes through the courses. In our seminar, through my research, I was able to appreciate my own culture and understand it, even more, I became even more eager to draw inspirations from my culture for my future projects.
I was very intrigued by the topic lotus shoes as my great grandmother was considered the last generation before foot binding became illegal in China. Having a personal family connection, I felt the need for curiosity to look more into the foot binding practice, as well as the art of lotus shoes. This started my journey across three courses this semester to learn about these shoes. I was convinced at a young age that foot binding was cruel and unethical, however this time, I decided to dig deeper into the history and purposes of foot binding and lotus shoes. Somehow show me and others, even though it’s unethical in modern people’s eyes, it was something that ancient Chinese people follow and was proud of. My research brought me to another level of understanding and respect towards Chinese women, their dedication to family, beauty, and religion was undeniably strong. Again, made me realized that my culture was one rich and complex. Through the projects, I realized that nothing is completely wrong or right, everything is relative, that’s why we need to think in different perspectives and be more creative with our minds.
This year has been a tremendous change in my life, but mentally and physically. Being in this school makes me think and create way more than I used to and I will be forever grateful. Each project I did has a personal connection with me and I appreciate each of them, seeing them as opportunities and enrich myself, understand myself more and evaluate myself, and that I think is what I need to become a better person, and better at what I do in the future.
