Provincetown, Massachusetts, from the series East Meets West

Tseng Kwong Chi, Provincetown, Massachusetts, from the series East Meets West, 1979, printed 2008, gelatin silver print, frame: 37 ¹⁄₄ × 37 ¹⁄₄ in. (94.6 × 94.6 cm) image: 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, 2021.14.4, © Muna Tseng Dance Projects, Inc.

Artwork Details

Title: Provincetown, Massachusetts, from the series East Meets West
Artist: Tseng Kwong Chi
Date: 1979, printed 2008
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: frame: 37 ¹⁄₄ × 37 ¹⁄₄ in. (94.6 × 94.6 cm) image: 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm)
Copyright: © Muna Tseng Dance Projects, Inc.
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
Mediums Description: gelatin silver print
Classifications: Photography
Subjects: Landscape — Massachusetts — Provincetown
Object Number: 2021.14.4
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2021.14.4

Artwork Description

In his signature series East Meets West, Tseng Kwong Chi inhabited a persona he called the "Ambiguous Ambassador." Wearing a Mao suit (the gray uniform associated with the Chinese Communist Party) and mirrored sunglasses, he posed next to landmarks and monuments, many of them emblems of American national identity.

Tseng highlighted the signifying power of dress, gesture, and posture. As an immigrant and person of Chinese descent, he was also conscious of how Asians are stereotyped in the West. His donning of the Mao suit in public was a tongue-in-cheek performance of "Chineseness" that both played to and subverted assumptions about race, culture, and nationality.