White Anxieties 1982-2018

International Body Repair Shop:

In Memory of Vincent Jen Chin 1955-1982

This performance asks what have we learned since the racist killing of Vincent Jen Chin, a Chinese-American employee of a Chrysler manufacturing plant, who was clubbed to death by two fellow employees. Like many Americans at the time, this father and stepson were upset that Japan had entered the automobile industry and had come to the racist belief that all Asians were after their jobs. The tragedy, savagery, and idiocy of their actions was compounded by extremely lenient sentences (probation and a small fine).

To explore how we as a society do not seem to have learned from Mr. Chin’s senseless death, I, a Taiwanese-American, will install Japanese car parts and tools in White Box and present a performance in which audience members will learn, hands-on if they wish, how cars are assembled in factories like the Chrysler plant in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park. “International Body Repair Shop” compares the racist baseball bat beating of 1982 with current anti-globalization rhetoric and policies in a performance that asks “how can we make America truly great?”

Artist: Chin Chih Yang