马尔代夫 | Maldives
A 20-part bilingual illustrated fable that reinvents lianhuanhua to dismantle the model minority myth; the first six parts debuted at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago.
Debut Chapter
Illustrated Fabe + Exhibition
2026 (on-going)
Maldives is a 20-part illustrated fable and immersive exhibition re-imagining the immigrant experience through phantasmagoric surrealism. Fusing Dreamcore aesthetics with Y2K-era Guangzhou, the project employs multilingual serial-picture narration to dismantle the model minority myth of assimilation, and explore the radical reclamation of a fragmented cultural identity. The first six parts debuted at my March 2026 solo exhibition at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago. Chapter Two is currently in production.
The work reinvents lianhuanhua — a turn-of-the-century Chinese serial picture medium originally designed for mass literacy — as a high-concept, digital-surrealist form. Translation and code-switching operate as narrative tools: while Mandarin and English carry the primary story arc, Cantonese traces are embedded in the prose and within the Dreamcore architectural textures, accessible only to specific cultural speakers. This tiered literacy mirrors the coded, fragmented reality of the diaspora and challenges the graphic novel's status quo as a linear, transparent medium, repositioning the act of reading as a process of cultural excavation and repair.
Multilingual wordplay is central to the work's framing. The title, Maldives (马尔代夫), functions as a proxy for an idyllic life, a phonetic Mandarin pun for "Ma'er substitute husband" (Ma'er dai fu), and a nod to the Cantonese cartoon character McDull, representing a promised paradise that remains perpetually out of reach.
The project will manifest in two distinct forms: a high-volume 8.5 x 11" publication and a monumental gallery installation. The book is intended for wide circulation, serving as a portable, accessible narrative artifact for my community. In parallel, the exhibition will feature twenty limited-edition 40 x 53" fine-art prints. The scale and dramatic lighting of these prints will transform the gallery into an immersive "book-as-environment". Audiences are invited to navigate diasporic liminality alongside Ma'er, treated to the nuances of an immigrant psyche shaped by a multitude.
Saddle-stitched booklet
Preliminary sketches
