As an Asian American graphic designer, when I reflect on my design practice, my experience as an Asian American heavily influences my work and narrative. Therefore, when expanding this reflection to a larger context, the increased racism towards Asian Americans and Asians during the Covid-19 pandemic goes without notice and is something I see happening and have personally experienced.
I wanted to address this changing increase in normalizing racism towards the Asian community by translating elements of the Yuefenpai, which are an important form of visual advertisement in early 20th century China, into a contemporary poster series that reflects the societal changes Asians and Asian Americans have experienced. Yufenpais are calendar posters and hangers that combine elements of Western advertising influences and visual convention in form and content with traditional Chinese calendar elements.
My poster series explores the different ways of configuring elements of visual hierarchy - a central stock image of a woman, decorative borders, and product images from the Yuefenpai - to communicate a memorable message about the racism Asian Americans have experienced. I created a series of three posters with different messages: “I am Asian but I am not a virus”, “I am Asian but don’t assume my ethnicity”, and “I am Asian but I am not any less American”.
The reframed elements in the context of a contemporary poster series effectively communicate the Asian American’s changing experience of increased normalization of racism towards Asian Americans.
The expressions of the models express the confidence and firm stance needed to demand awareness for change and to spread awareness when faced with normalized racism. Their gaze demands the viewer to acknowledge the change the poster is addressing: Asian people are not a virus, do not generalize and assume Asian people’s ethnicity, and Asian Americans are just as American as well. The gazes of these women display strength and challenge the racist remarks and normalized racism towards Asians Americans while displaying their pride in their identity of being Asian American.
With my poster series, I hope that in a public space, it would grab the attention of passersby and appeal to them enough for them to view the entirety of it and take away the message: racism towards the Asian community does exist and due to Covid-19 there has been an increasing normalization of this racism that needs to be acknowledged.
