Okay sooo following a tip from Princess Conseula Banana Hammock (prettttty sure that was how the nickname went??), I did some research on Kristina Wong. She is a third generation Chinese American, so although she was not born into another culture, she does take up issues in her culture jams that are from different cultural contexts (sort of?).
I felt compelled to blog about her just because I found this form of culture jam to be extremely interesting and different then any others I've seen featured in the blogs! One of her many projects includes taking on characters or personas that resist dominant hegemonic ideals. For example, she takes on the persona of 'Fannie Wong, Former Miss Chinatown 2nd Runner Up'. I've included a picture above from her website just so you can get an idea of how awesome this is..... Click here to visit her website.
What do you guys think of her persona?? Her personality is described on the project page of her site as 'too crude to be anything like the deliciously sexy icon of Miss Chinatown'. What does this say of the icon of Miss Chinatown?? And are persona's and characters like this effective versions of culture jams??
I think so! Seeing images of Fannie Wong alongside real Miss Chinatown contestants reveals some interesting discrepancies. Fannie embodies all that these women aren't allowed to be - 'pimple-faced, cigar-smoking, whiskey-drinking' women.
Aubrey B.
After reading your post I checked out Kristina Wong's page, and WOW! Hilarity definitely ensues! She is quite the character...and perhaps one of my new favourite people. I love that she addresses real-life issues in a fun pop-culture, hilarious sort of way, its a very good method for getting messages across to people that normally don't care enough about gender and culture issues to take the time to listen to the messages activists are trying to get people to hear.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite part of the Miss Chinatown project is Kristina's puppet named "Vag" and looks suspiciously like ...er..um.. something :).
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