Ribbon Dance of Empowerment: Chinese Dance through the Eyes of an American

Atlanta Chinese Dance Company shared a rarely told story about Chinese Americans growing up in the South through an original production Ribbon Dance of Empowerment: Chinese Dance through the Eyes of an American on October 19-20, 2019 at the Infinite Energy Theater. Intertwining Chinese dance, history, and culture with personal storytelling by and about some of the nearly 100 dancers, the production celebrated the role the art form has played in our search for identity, belonging, and self-acceptance as Chinese Americans in the South.

Based on my personal journey, the production culminated in an original mini dance drama that tells the story of a shy little American born Chinese girl who does not know where she belongs in the black/white binary of the American South. As she performs the Chinese ribbon dance throughout her life, firing up crowds in American schools, libraries, museums, performing arts centers, military bases, and even corporate HQs, she realizes that her Chinese heritage is not a source of shame but pride. The ribbon dance takes on her inner demons in hundreds of onstage battles, empowering her to be confident in her own skin.

Part 1: A Tiny Speck of Yellow in the Black/White Binary

This piece is based on a childhood memory… When I was in fourth grade, we studied the American Civil War. My teacher told us to ask our parents which side of the war our ancestors fought on. Of course, I didn’t need to ask. I knew my answer (or lack thereof) would be unlike most everyone else in my class. As a yellow-skinned Asian, I couldn’t figure out where, or if, I belonged.

Part 2: A Little Red Dragon

In this contemporary Chinese dance solo choreographed to my own story and voice, I compare the ribbon dance to a little red dragon that has taken me on a long journey to embrace my cultural heritage and be confident in my own skin. In this excerpt, I speak about performing Chinese dance at an American military base and the juxtaposition between the two cultures. The army band’s patriotic music evokes memories from my childhood, when I didn’t think I could be a “real” American because I’m not white.

Part 3: Ribbon Dance of Empowerment

Legend has it that the ribbon dance was created in honor of a man who saved a Han dynasty emperor’s life by blocking the assassin’s sword with his oversized silk sleeve. The ribbon dance has shielded me from the invisible daggers of Asian inferiority. This piece combines Chinese dance with martial arts to bring to life the inner struggles and triumphs of Chinese Americans growing up in the South.


My Story

中文版

A Tiny Speck of Yellow in the Black/White Binary

When I was in fourth grade, we studied the American Civil War. My teacher told us to ask our parents which side of the war our ancestors fought on. Of course, I didn’t need to ask. I knew my answer (or lack thereof) would be unlike most everyone else in my class. As a yellow-skinned Asian – neither black nor white – I couldn’t figure out where, or if, I belonged.

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There was a wishing wall in my elementary school hallway with yellow paper stars. One day, as I was standing with my class in a single file line, I remember peering up at it and silently asking myself what my wish would be. The first thing that came to mind was “blonde hair and blue eyes.” I wanted to look like the beautiful people I learned about in school, saw on TV, sat next to in class… In my young mind, as a shy little Chinese girl, those were the people who looked like they could be leaders. That was the America I knew – the universe I saw as legitimate.

Throughout school, I never knew that Chinese American soldiers fought on both sides of the Civil War. I never knew that during that same time period, Chinese workers made up nearly ninety percent of the workforce who built the western section of America’s first transcontinental railroad – that while the history of Chinese in America didn’t appear in my textbooks, we’ve nevertheless been woven into the fabric of the great nation we’re proud to call home. It was through a literal piece of dancing fabric – silk, a Chinese invention – that I’d finally see myself in the elementary school curriculum many, many years later.

A Little Red Dragon

The ribbon dance is a traditional Chinese dance of celebration. Anyone can try their hand – toddlers at the children’s museum, nursing home patients in wheelchairs… I first performed the children’s version when I was six years old. The concept is pretty simple. A ribbon is just a long piece of silk attached to a stick. It only takes a gentle flick of the wrist to create the image of a little red dragon flying through the air – though it takes an expert to command a pair of dynamic dragons, each over fifteen feet in length.

But for me, the ribbon dance is much more than a dance of celebration. It’s as if the little red dragon has transported me on a long journey – to the deepest part of my soul and to faraway galaxies I’d been afraid to enter alone, speaking on my behalf when I couldn’t voice words. As an American born Chinese who grew up in the South – a tiny speck of yellow in a universe of white and black – the ribbon dance is my dance of empowerment.

Much like Mushu the little red dragon in Disney’s Mulan, the ribbon dance has been a constant companion throughout my life. Just after I was born, my mom started what would become the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company. The first dance they performed at the Chinese Community Center was the ribbon dance. Back then I barely knew how to walk or talk, but that didn’t stop me from begging the teenage dancers to let me play with their ribbons.

In the more than thirty years since then, the ribbon dance has accompanied me through the trials and tribulations of life. It didn’t abandon me when I looked down on it through adolescent American eyes. It followed me across the country to college and helped me start Stanford Chinese Dance. It gave me a leg up when I entered the professional dance world in New York without a dance degree or the right body type. It came home with me to the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company and fired up crowds in American schools, libraries, museums, performing arts centers, and even corporate HQs. It multiplied and mutated when I taught it to others and put my own spin on it. It shoved me out the door and proved me wrong when I didn’t think we were good enough for So You Think You Can Dance, Atlanta Ballet, the “mainstream.”

You see, the ribbon dance – this mythical, shape-shifting dragon – has taken on my inner demons in hundreds of onstage battles, growing larger and more skillful with each new victory. By unleashing power within me, connecting me with the world above, it has convinced me that my Chinese heritage is not a source of shame but pride – that I am not inferior just because I am not white.

Like a Chinese dragon chasing the pearl of wisdom, the ribbon dance has become my mode of transportation to view and make sense of the world. Cheered on by kind folks in the cornfields of Iowa, mountaintops of Tennessee, and turquoise water of the British Virgin Islands, we returned triumphantly to my old elementary school in Georgia – no longer a shy little girl who wished I had blonde hair and blue eyes.

In May we were invited to Fort Gordon to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Surrounded by military flags on a lofty stage, we took everyone on a journey from my home state to the home of my ancestors.

Before I knew it, the Army Band’s bold brass notes enveloped the auditorium to bring us back to America. It took my ears a moment to adjust to the patriotic American music after an hour of Chinese dance. For a moment, I didn’t know who I was.

But then the memories came flooding back from my elementary school days, singing “America the Beautiful” and “The Star Spangled Banner” in music class and reciting The Pledge of Allegiance every morning for 12 years. Back then, one of my best friends called herself a real American at my birthday party. When my dad pointed it out to me later – that she implied I was a fake – my mom and I didn’t see anything wrong with it. After all, she was white and I was not. Who was I to believe I could be a real American too?

But that day, standing tall in an American military base wearing a colorful Chinese dance costume, I knew. My heart swelled with pride as the patriotic American music washed over me – just as my heart had swelled as I danced to traditional Chinese music just moments before. Both American and Chinese cultures have been so deeply embedded in who I am since birth. There’s a tenderness that reminds me of my loving family whenever I’m immersed in anything Chinese, but I’ve never pledged allegiance to any other country than the United States of America. I am, indeed, a real American too.

Ribbon Dance of Empowerment

Legend has it that the ribbon dance was created in honor of a man who saved a Han dynasty emperor’s life by blocking the assassin’s sword with his oversized silk sleeve. The ribbon dance has shielded me from the invisible daggers of Asian inferiority. I hope it can shield others too — children in the audience, our community at large, and especially my young Atlanta Chinese Dance Company dancers growing up alongside the ribbon dance as I have. When they’re wielding a ribbon, I hope they feel as if they have the power to command a majestic dragon — and that they’re not shy but proud to introduce it to their friends. I hope we all feel empowered to be confident in our own skin.

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KERRY LEE is the Co-Artistic Director of the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company. After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in engineering and working for a top ranked economic consulting firm, she followed her heart into the professional dance world in New York City.  As a traditional Chinese and modern/contemporary dance artist, Kerry performed throughout the US and the British Virgin Islands before returning home to co-lead the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company with her mother Hwee-Eng Y. Lee. Outside of dance, Kerry is very passionate about social justice. For the past 5+ years, she worked at the intersection of the arts and activism at Alternate ROOTS.

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Atlanta Chinese Dance Company’s Ribbon Dance of Empowerment: Chinese Dance through the Eyes of an American was supported in part by awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and Georgia Council for the Arts. Additionally, the mini dance drama was supported by an Alternate ROOTS Artistic Assistance Project Development award (made possible by funds from The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation).

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