Hong Zhang

My Grandmother’s Birdcage
chinese water color on rice paper
16 x 20 in.

As a Chinese woman living in America, gender and political issues become my first concerns. The idea for “The Birdcage” series comes from Chinese culture and a woman’s experience. The work reflects the suffering and joy felt by both traditional and contemporary women (my grandmother, my mother and myself). The birdcage represents the traditional patriarchal system as well as restrictions in contemporary society. Grandmother’s bound feet, mother’s revolutionary feet and my bare feet symbolize how our physical as well as mental conditions have dramatically changed through the generations.

© Hong Zhang