Cultured Pearls

Before I even touched thumbnailing stage, I had to do research on the traditional dances of my friend group. My best friend, who is Cambodian, exposed me to the concept of Champei flowers and Robam Jun Por, which is a blessing dance performed at festivals and government events. As I am Vietnamese and Chinese myself, I chose the fan dance due to its popularity in the International space, as well as it’s significance in Viet culture. I chose Peking Opera for myself because I used to wake up to it everyday on the television- making it a large part of my childhood. As for my last friend, I was previously working on a mural for a Mexican restaurant that featured the Dia De Los Muertos dance that unfortunately did not pan out— but that gave me a chance to reuse the pose for this drawing. I also chose this dance in particular because it’s often performed in the Mexican festivals in my city, as it’s majority Black and Hispanic. This drawing is also partially inspired by the Buddhist artwork I grew up with.