Edmond Peng

Artist Statement

Ever since the start of the pandemic, Asian hate crimes have been on a constant rise. In spite of that, through digital art, I'll showcase our culture and strengthen our energy against racism.

Getting up close to the Asian community, the culture, their religion and my family, my work will fulfill the role of our voice; it'll be the voice for those who can't speak up and bring light to our situation.

Essentially, my work reflects on the situation of the Asian community and the rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans. Through three digitally-drawn photos, I am projecting the beauty of our culture and building a stronger sense of community.

Final Project

To complete the project, I took photos of Chinatown, a Buddhist temple and my grandparents which represents my own heritage of the Asian immigrants in Montreal. Each pieces of the triptych was created using Clip Studio Paint and a Wacom tablet.

As a Chinese kid that grew up in a traditional Cantonese family, I was taught to be serviceable, kind, forgiving and to never be a hassle. As others made fun of me for my race, I quickly learned to brush things off and labeled racist comments as harmless jokes. I never truly learned how to speak up for myself until a couple years ago. It hurts me to see that we're being blamed for the pandemic when it's not even of our control. Pure racism and idiocy at its peak. And the sad fact is that racism towards Asians has always been part of our lives; the pandemic is a mere occasion for covert racists to finally open up and exhilarate their long-existing hate. It's just so frustrating and sad at the same time.

This time, I don't want to sit around and ignore or minimize this whole event. It is not a joke anymore and we've had enough.

I want to cherish my heritage; our culture is so beautiful, our religion is wholesome and our sense of community is, and will always be, supportive.