Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

My poetry manuscript, Paper Fathers, examines grief, memory, and self-invention through the archive of Chinese Exclusion and the Chinese Confession Program. It is both elegy to my father and grandfather—a “paper son” who took on a false identity to circumvent Exclusion—and documentary reckoning with the history of migrant policing and detention in the U.S. Using persona, prose poetry, and found language from sources including government documents and records of my relatives’ incarceration at Angel Island, the book wrestles with patriarchy, nationalism, family silences, and the question of what we make from the stories we inherit.

While at Headlands

At Headlands, I hope to continue revisions on my manuscript. I have conducted research for this project since 2019, retrieving relatives’ immigration files, visiting historical sites, interviewing family members and studying Toisanese to translate family documents. The focused time and space will allow me to process and experiment with hundreds of pages of handwritten notes, drafts, and research material, towards making new discoveries in the work. In addition, Headlands’ proximity to Angel Island will allow me to write and revise at a site that features prominently in the manuscript. I also hope to continue work on a nascent nonfiction project on my maternal great aunt and Asian American vaudeville.

“Asian American Historic District,” “To Great Great Uncle, Who Worked 4-5 Years for Mr. Stanford at Warm Springs,” and “Elegy”

 

“A Genealogy of Discarded Things”

 

“Angel Island State Park”