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Transcription: [00:00:00]

{SPEAKER name="Jasmine Fernandez"}
Hi, This is Jasmine Fernandez at the national portrait gallery with Cyjo and I have a few questions for you. Um, one would be, describe your philosophy on art.

[00:00:11]

{SPEAKER name="CYJO"}
The art that I love and the art that I like to produce tends to pose questions more so than definitive answers. It's evocative, thought provoking, expansive, it allows individuals to contextualize themselves and others in their societies. The work that I do and the work that I like also has- although it's created under restraints- ends up having an overall message that goes beyond race, ethnicity, sex, age, or religion.

[00:00:53]

{SPEAKER name="Jasmine Fernandez"}
Okay, um, the next question would be what does Asian-American mean to you?

[00:01:00]

{SPEAKER name="CYJO"}
I think there are similarities with Americans of Asian ancestry as opposed to other Americans with different ancestries and there are also differences. The similarities involve understanding and having a curiosity for other cultures and also the fact that we as Americans have different relationships with our ancestral culture

[00:01:29]

{SPEAKER name="CYJO"}
And those relationships tend to vary on what we're introduced to by our families or our personal experiences growing up in the States with those ethnic cultures or our heritage, and that tends to reign over any American that has any heritage.

[00:01:48]

{SPEAKER name="CYJO"}
The differences involve, obviously, having one – having both the East and the West influence inside your personality and those types of relationships with both the East and the West. And, one is the fact that you are definitely viewed initially as an individual who is Asian because of your Asian DNA identifying you on your exterior, and that separates Asian-Americans from other Americans of other ethnicities.

[00:02:25]

{SPEAKER name="CYJO"}
The other difference involves, for me, a different way of understanding perspective and the different personas, the collective persona versus the individual persona; the collective being based from Confucianism, and the individual promoting innovation and personality.
[00:02:50]

{SPEAKER name="CYJO"}
So, it's really understanding the way decisions are being made, the way life choices are being made using those different types of personas and incorporating them into my life to make the best decisions possible so.

[00:03:09]