East and Southeast Asian Immigration since 1860 – mobile exhibition
This mobile exhibition looks back at the key moments and major events of a century and a half of East and Southeast Asian migration to France.
Legende
Pierre Michaud, Quartier asiatique, 13th arrondissement of Paris. 1994.
Credit
© Pierre Michaud / Gamma Rapho
The history of migrations from East and South-East Asia to France is ancient and eminently contemporary at the same time. Nowadays, almost 6% of the immigrant population in France come from China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Thailand or the Philippines.
Spanning the period from 1860 to the present day, this exhibition traces the collective and individual journeys of migrants coming from East and South-East Asia and their descendants, viewed alongside the major upheavals taking place in the contemporary world. Unchanging stereotypes over time, invisibilisation, discrimination, as well as the struggles and initiatives denouncing them, are an integral part of this history. A range of works of art, artifacts, archives and testimonials work together to weave the fabric of this story, combining the great events of History with the unique experiences of migrants and their descendants.
Legende
Martial Beauville, Demonstration after the murder of Zhang Chaolin, Paris, 4 September 2016.
Credit
© Martial Beauville / Asiagora
Objectives
- Understand the reasons and modalities behind migratory movements from South-East Asia since 1860, placing them back within their political, economic and social context.
- Show the diversity of collective and individual migratory journeys, according to eras and countries of origin, contrasting with stereotypes that tend to standardise Asian populations.
- Demonstrate how stereotypes, prejudices and Anti-Asian discrimination have persisted in France, along with the emergence of new forms of mobilisation for equal rights and a change in the way South-East Asians are depicted.
In practice :
- 15 roll-up panels, 100 x 200 cm