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DESCRIPTION:Artist reception for Escape From Chinatown, a photography show exploring 
 cultural identity and the drawbacks of stereotyping other human beings. 
 Featuring the work of local artist and photographer Isis Ming Hao.\n\nPart 
 of a group exhibit featuring the work of Angelita Mireles and Joseph Niles. 
 \n\nFree! There will be food and drinks! Bring your friends and family! 
 Kids are welcome!\n\nAt the High Street Station Cafe, 1303 High Street, 
 Alameda CA 94501 on Nov. 4th from 7PM - 9PM.\n\nArtist's Statement:\n\nIn 
 my dreams of the apocalypse, I used to find myself wandering the deserted 
 streets of Oakland’s Chinatown. Though the boulevards were quiet, the din 
 of the marketplace still hung in the air. The sidewalks smelled of herbs, 
 Chinese food, and vaguely of human waste. In my dreams I was always looking 
 for a way out; an escape from Chinatown, which was always inescapably a 
 labyrinth. After desperate hours of seeking I would find myself exactly 
 where I started, surrounded by the ghostly din of the market and the smell 
 of urine.\n\n On the surface these dreams were about my conflicted feelings 
 of cultural identity. I was looking for a way out of Chinatown and a way in 
 to the American identity. I soon discovered that the things that I had so 
 desperately wanted to be a part of were empty. This is the same way that I 
 had felt about Chinatown: to me it symbolized the worst of Chinese culture. 
 Gaudy knick-knacks, tacky trinkets: the cheap trappings of a culture 
 paraded as the culture itself.\n\n\n Using photography, I will explore the 
 concept of escape, not from a cultural identity, but from a distorted 
 inaccurate cultural identity that I came to associate with Chinatown. Using 
 Chinatown itself as a symbol of this cultural ensnarement, each of my 
 pieces portrays a person, caught in the midst of this metaphorical 
 entanglement. \n\n\nThese images are often desolate as they are visual 
 depictions of the tangible isolation that is felt when we categorize or 
 stereotype a person. This act not only isolates them from ourselves but by 
 doing so we isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. Coupled with this 
 pervading sense of loneliness is an atmosphere of hope. The world is not 
 easily bound by limitations. Like everything else, human beings are always 
 changing, growing, evolving. Life transcends definitions and shatters 
 boundaries.\n\n\nIn my work for this series, I spent many days wandering 
 the streets of both Oakland’s Chinatown and San Francisco’s Chinatown. 
 Though I had long come to terms with my own cultural identity and my 
 childish yearning to fit in, the hours spent among the sights, sounds, and 
 smells of my people changed me; grounded me in some way. I had come full 
 circle. I was back where I started, in Chinatown, but I was no longer 
 looking for a way out.\n\n\n                                                
 -Isis Ming Hao\n\nFor more info:\nhttp://isishao.webs.com/exhibitions.htm\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/08/06/18687083.php
SUMMARY:Escape From Chinatown 逃離中國城
LOCATION:High Street Station Cafe, 1303 High Street, Alameda CA 94501
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/08/06/18687083.php
DTSTART:20111105T020000Z
DTEND:20111105T040000Z
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