Student curator takes you behind the headscarf

Student curator takes you behind the headscarf
16 may 2019. Muallif: James Lee
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Zishi Yang discusses how her exhibition uses food, pictures of tree trunks and kimono fashion to paint a broader picture of the Muslim women experience beyond the veil.
When art history major Zishi Yang told her parents about her interests in ethnic and religious minority issues, they said: “Just mind your own business please. They have nothing to do with you.”
“Well, I think they have everything to do with me.” she responded.
Born and raised in the eastern Chinese province Shandong, Yang says she rarely met any ethnic or religious minorities in her hometown where Han Chinese constitutes the majority. When she started studying at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 2013, she was struck by how negatively Mainlanders were portrayed in the media. The first-hand feeling of being discriminated triggered her passion in minorities activism. “I think my parents are also my motivation, because I know that somebody that I really care about don’t understand what I’m doing,” she says. “I need to figure out ways to understand their position.”
Zishi Yang. Photo courtesy of Zishi Yang.
This determination has metamorphosed into an exhibition and made its way to the Main Library of HKU. Called Unveiling the Veil: Muslim Women in Hong Kong, the exhibition features handcrafts, photographs, videos and paintings from over 25 artists. Not all of them are Muslim women, but their works are connected by one goal: to convey a broader image of the Muslim women experience.
Which is, first and foremost, why this exhibition is significant to Hong Kong—a city that is often branded as a melting pot of cultures. According to a research conducted by the government in 2016, Hong Kong is home to some 300,000 Muslims, which makes up to approximately 4% of the population. Yet, for Yang, the Muslim community remains segregated from the society and exists no more than abstract concepts in Hongkongers’ everyday lives.
“People live in parallel worlds,” she says. Taking Chungking Mansions—a building in Tsim Sha Tsui known for housing bonafide restaurants and shops ran by ethnic minorities—as an example, Yang says: “Lives of people there have no interactions with the so-called ‘normal, ‘ordinary’ and mainstream Hong Kong people.”
The term “normal” holds different meanings for different people. Some uses the word to indicate the contentment of staying inside comfort zones without the unexpected; for others, it means being viewed as equals and treated like everyone else. It seems that while many like Yang’s parents opt for the former, her exhibition deals with the latter.
Indonesian artist Imma Doank is showing two photographs of her dressing up in traditional kimono. Six years ago, she came to Hong Kong for work in order to pay for her brother’s university tuition fee. Since then, she has developed interests in make-up art and photography. Using the money she has earned from making side jobs in these fields, Doank bought herself a camera and donated to charities back home.
“Ordinary people see us only as [domestic] helpers who do not mean anything to them,” she writes in a letter to Yang. “Not all migrant workers just want to have fun during holidays. We also take time to learn and make our futures better.”
Kimono Fashion I and II by Imma Doank (right).
Doank’s work is part of “Unity in Diversity,” a section featuring snapshots of Muslims’ daily lives. Surrounded by pictures of halal food and travel documentations are pictures of tree trunks. Yang points out that while non-religious people may just appreciate natural beauty of the tree trunks, Muslims see them as gifts from Allah. “We all eat, travel and live in the environment. But how do people with different value systems perceive the environment differently?” Yang says.
Central to the exhibition is the idea of finding unity amidst differences—and for Yang—it all comes down to the freedom of choosing how one lives. On the corner of the exhibition is a wall where visitors can post their feedback. Yang recalls reading a comment criticising hijabs as anti-human rights. “People still don’t get what freedom of choice really means for individuals, instead of them trying to impose their ideas on others,” she says.
But freedom is not all roses, and it sometimes comes with a cost. One of the exhibits is a documentary made by journalism students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It tells the story of a local Hongkonger who converted because she married a Pakistani Muslim. The video was taken down at the protagonist’s request after many journalists contacted her to ask for interviews.
Indeed, for first-time curator Yang, the exhibition has raised more questions than answers, chief of which is: can a non-Muslim like herself curate an exhibition about Muslims? There is no easy answer—as Yang admits that she has been treading carefully to ensure that the curatorial narrative is more generative than forceful.
Like art, Muslimness are experiences that cannot be discussed inside the ivory tower. “Although it’s called an art exhibition, it’s really not about art, otherwise I would’ve just framed it as Islamic art,” she says. Ever since the idea of curating the exhibition came into being, Yang has been participating in the lives of the contributing Muslim artists through wearing hijab, eating halal food and going to prayers.
While Unveiling the Veil may or may not not push the needle on changing people’s perception of the Muslim community in Hong Kong, to Yang, it is certainly a powerful tool for activism. “Public advocacy, at least in Hong Kong, is quite hardcore,” she says. “It doesn’t work. If you say everything so angrily, people don’t listen.”
Instead, she says art is a more approachable way to connect to the public. “This exhibition will only be my starting point,” she adds.
Unveiling the Veil: Muslim Women in Hong Kong is on view from April 20 at the Main Library at the University of Hong Kong.
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