OCAT Shanghai is pleased to present the term 1 of the 2020 C-PLAN exhibition, Luka Yuanyuan Yang’s solo exhibition, Shanghai Low, from November 7 to December 27, 2020. Shanghai Low, a former Chinese restaurant that flourished in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 20th century. The adoption of its Chinese and English names as the subject for the exhibition draws inspiration from the analysis of “phonocentrism” in the post-colonial translation theories, where phonetics was prioritized over semantics. Translation is generally regarded as the exchange and negotiation of two heterogeneous cultural systems, which, in the post-colonial context, has further evolved into a battleground and a place of exemplification. Shanghai Low, as a cultural symbol of the “other’s” culture, has departed from its original cultural context and arrived anew, where the possibility of expression in the original language has been lost. 

“Translation is that which takes place across cultures, peoples and therefore borders.”

–Jacques Derrida, Writing and Difference

OCAT上海馆将于2020年11月7日至12月27日荣幸呈现2020年度第1期C空间计划——杨圆圆个展：上海楼（Shanghai Low）。上海楼曾是20世纪美国旧金山唐人街盛极一时的华人餐馆，之所以挪用唐人街华人餐馆——上海楼的中英文名字作为展览的主题，灵感来自于后殖民主义翻译理论中对“语音中心主义”的阐析——强调语音之于文字涵义的优先地位。翻译被普遍认为是两种异质文化系统的交流与协商，在后殖民语境下，进一步演变为冲突之地（battleground）与例证之所（exemplification）。作为“他者”文化的表征字符——上海楼在脱离了原有文化语境，抵达了新的文化系统中后，原语文本失去了被表述的可能性。

“翻译就是在那多种文化、多种民族之间,因此也是在边界处发生的东西。”

——雅克•德里达，《书写与差异》

Year： 2020

Curator：Wang Shuman 王姝曼

Location：OCAT, Shanghai

What’s more, the restaurant, Shanghai Low, primarily served Cantonese cuisine and had no real connection to Shanghai, was nevertheless appropriated for its exotic quality. Speaking of “Shanghai,” the Western diners could easily associate it with the beautiful oriental faces and customs. It is not uncommon to find such self-orientalized nomenclature in Chinatown. For the culturally uprooted Chinese immigrant communities, having experienced anxieties about their national values and identities, these names embody a “primitive passion”. However, the confusion caused by such “primitive passion” as cultural exports further obscures and distorts the Eastern cultures’ heterogeneity in the mirror image of the West, which is eventually conceived as “mystery, fancy, barbarism, ignorance, backwardness and, superstition.” Under the Western power system’s invisible control, the aphasic translation and alienated forms were tucked under the strange landscape of Chinatowns in the 20th century. Only through the discoveries of individual survival experiences and memories would we restore the unfocused picture and the gradually dissipating history.  

” They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented.”

–Karl Marx, quoted from the epigraph of Orientalism

更值说道的是，这间名为上海楼的餐厅主供粤派菜肴，和上海这个地点并无任何实际关联，之所以取名为上海楼，是因为“上海”这个词被认为充满了异域色彩。提及“上海”，西方的食客们便很容易联想到美丽的东方脸孔与风情。在中国城中，如是自我东方化的命名方式并不少见，经历了文化移根的离散华人群体带着对民族价值和自我身份的双重焦虑，弥漫而出的一种“原初的激情”。然而“原初的激情”造成的文化输出混淆使得东方文化的异质性在西方的镜像中被进一步朦胧化、变形化，并被最终凝视为“神秘、花哨、野蛮、愚昧、落后、迷信”的畸变形象。在西方权力系统的无形摄控下，失语的翻译到异化的形象被潜藏在20世纪唐人街歌舞升平的奇异景观中，只有依靠摸索着个体在彼时的生存经验和记忆才能逐渐还原出未被聚焦的画面和即将消散的历史。

“他们无法表述自己，他们必须被别人表述。”

——卡尔·马克思，引自《东方学》扉页

In April 2018, artist Luka Yuanyuan Yang came to the United States with a research project on Chinese women in show business in the 20th century, with the support of the Asian Cultural Council. She met a group of aging Chinese women in San Francisco’s Chinatown including, the legendary dancer and the last proprietor of San Francisco’s Chinatown nightclub Forbidden City, Coby Yee; retired dancer and Chinatown guide, Cynthia Yee; former magazine model and the lady from Shanghai, Ceecee Wu; and the ladies of Grant Avenue Follies of Chinatown. The grandparents of these Chinese women were the first Chinese immigrants to arrive in San Francisco in the mid-to-late 19th century to the early 20th century, who lived through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), and participated in the building of San Francisco’s first Chinatown. As the second and third-generation American-born Chinese, they witnessed the rise and fall of nightclubs and Cantonese opera theaters in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 20th century. The exhibition follows the lives of these legendary women with extraordinary experiences through Yang Yuanyuan’s perspective. As the overlapping, multi-dimensional images of these women converge in time and space, the San Francisco Chinatown of the last century would be gradually brought to life. The exhibition will unfold through the narratives of four video works and a collection of images and archival materials. Revolving around Luka’s latest series Women’s World, which recreates overseas Chinese women’s memories in 20th-century Cantonese opera theaters, movie sets, and nightclubs.

“The relationship between “Woman” — a cultural and ideological composite Other constructed through diverse representational discourses (scientific, literary, juridical, linguistic, cinematic, etc). This connection between women as historical subjects and the representation of Woman produced by hegemonic discourses is not a relation of direct identity, or a relation of correspondence or simple implication. It is an arbitrary relation set up by particular cultures.”

–Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses

The design of the exhibition space was inspired by the reference to “Making Rounds” in one of the works in the exhibition, Tales of Chinatown, which refers to the cultural and entertainment spectacles of 20th century Chinatown in the United States, where patrons were free to frequent these food and beverage establishments. If you were to visit, you would enjoy a table of Cantonese cuisine at the Shanghai Low, then head to the Forbidden City Nightclub for the first round of shows, before moving on to the second and third dance performances of the evening at Club Shanghai and the Chinese Sky Room. It may be a “voyage in” where we, the visitors, will walk around the edges a few times to develop a unique perception of historical realities. Or, it may just be a wonderful trip to Chinatown, where you will meet these legendary Chinese women who are still preparing for the closing dance in their twilight years.

Hereby, welcome! Shanghai Low.

Text by Wang Shuman

2018年4月，艺术家杨圆圆在亚洲文化协会的支持下，带着20世纪的演艺圈中的华人女性研究课题来到美国。她在旧金山唐人街遇见了一群年事已高的华裔女性：旧金山华埠夜总会“紫禁城”最后一任经营者、传奇舞者余金巧（Coby Yee）；退役舞者、唐人街向导方美仙（Cynthia Yee）；曾经的平面模特、上海来的女士吴锡锡（Ceecee Wu）以及唐人街都板街舞团（Grant Avenue Follies）的各位女士们。这群华裔女性的祖父辈大多是在19世纪中后期至20世纪初抵达美国旧金山的第一批华人移民者，经历过1906年的旧金山地震、《排华法案》的实施(1882年-1943年)，并参与建立了旧金山最早的唐人街。而身为在美国出生的第二代、第三代华裔的她们则是亲身见证了20世纪旧金山华埠夜总会、粤剧戏院的兴起至衰落。展览跟随着杨圆圆的视角依次进入到这些具有不同身世际遇的传奇女性生命中，交叠的多维度女性形象于时空中交汇，渐而将20世纪旧金山华埠旧景缓缓浮现在大众眼前。展览将由四部影像作品和收集的图像与文献展开叙事，围绕杨圆圆最新系列创作《女人世界》展开对20世纪海外粤剧戏台、电影片场与夜总会场景中的华裔女性的记忆重塑。

“通过不同再现话语(科学的、文学的、法律的、语言学的、电影的)来建构的一个文化和意识形态的复合他者之女性。作为历史主体的女性和霸权话语生产的女性再现之间的关系并不是一种直接的同一关系也不是一种对应的或简单的暗示关系,而是一种建立在特殊文化和历史语境中的任意关系。”

——钱德拉·莫汉蒂，《在西方的注视下:女性主义与殖民话语》

展览空间设计灵感来自于展览其中一件作品《中国城轶事》中提到的“走几轮”（Making Rounds），意指20世纪美国唐人街呈现出的文化娱乐奇观——客人于不同餐饮娱乐场所自行其间，自由穿梭。如你来此地，可先去上海楼享用一桌粤式菜肴，后前往紫禁城夜总会（Forbidden City Nightclub）观看第一轮演出，之后移步至上海夜总会（Club Shanghai）和大观天台（Chinese Sky Room）欣赏今晚的第二和第三场舞蹈表演。这或许会是一场“驶入的航行”，我们在边缘处走上几轮，产生出一种看待历史现实的特殊方式；又或许它只是一次精彩的华埠之旅，你将邂逅这些在晚年依旧奔波于筹备谢幕之舞的华裔传奇女性们。

到此，欢迎光临！上海楼。

文 ｜ 王姝曼