Herb Tam is a Chinese-American curator who was born in Hongkong and raised in San Fracisco, Bay area. He is now working as the curator and director of exhibitions at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in Manhattan Chinatown, New York. He curated lots of exhibitions focusing on Chinese identity, Chinatown, Chinese-American culture and history as well as their current life in America.
Tam, a Chinese-American, is recognized as the minority person. He suffered from some unfairness and isolation during his grown-up. As an immigrant, it is more difficult for him to get used to the native life and culture. He did a lot of shows focusing on Chinese in America. He curated the exhibition called SUB URBANISMS: Casino Urbanization, Chinatowns, and …show more content…
The exhibition tells complex stories through a dynamic video installation about Chinese chefs, food, restaurants, and culture in America. In the video, those chefs tell their own understandings of food and their own stories of moving to and living in the United States. Lots of Chinese people could have the resonance and similar feeling since all of them have difficult time getting used to the American society and environment. There is a table with several chairs in front of the video screen, on which it has different kinds of ceramics shaped as Chinese food from various Chinese cuisines created by Chinese artists Heidi Lau and Lu Zhang. The words--sour, sweet, bitter and spicy--are not only the flavours of food that people can feel, but also represent different types of mental feelings from daily life. Chinese Immigrant people have experienced and had various emotions and feelings in America----happiness, excitement, joy, curiosity, sadness, unfairness, discrimination, anger and helplessness, just like feeling diverse flours of Chinese food. Chinese food can also reveal and show the Chinese identity because most Chinese people can not live without Chinese food, such as rice. People can learn a lot about Chinese-American by vissiting the
Tam, a Chinese-American, is recognized as the minority person. He suffered from some unfairness and isolation during his grown-up. As an immigrant, it is more difficult for him to get used to the native life and culture. He did a lot of shows focusing on Chinese in America. He curated the exhibition called SUB URBANISMS: Casino Urbanization, Chinatowns, and …show more content…
The exhibition tells complex stories through a dynamic video installation about Chinese chefs, food, restaurants, and culture in America. In the video, those chefs tell their own understandings of food and their own stories of moving to and living in the United States. Lots of Chinese people could have the resonance and similar feeling since all of them have difficult time getting used to the American society and environment. There is a table with several chairs in front of the video screen, on which it has different kinds of ceramics shaped as Chinese food from various Chinese cuisines created by Chinese artists Heidi Lau and Lu Zhang. The words--sour, sweet, bitter and spicy--are not only the flavours of food that people can feel, but also represent different types of mental feelings from daily life. Chinese Immigrant people have experienced and had various emotions and feelings in America----happiness, excitement, joy, curiosity, sadness, unfairness, discrimination, anger and helplessness, just like feeling diverse flours of Chinese food. Chinese food can also reveal and show the Chinese identity because most Chinese people can not live without Chinese food, such as rice. People can learn a lot about Chinese-American by vissiting the