Sound, Movement & Mixed Media Artist
A Story to Tell
Our family is one of the oldest Chinese Canadian Families to immigrate to Canada. Still, 180 years later, people ask "where I’m from," or I’m told to "go back to where you came from."
This project comes from the heart and is a journey of storytelling across the past five generations of our family being here in the lands colonially known as Canada. It is a story of how much Chinese Canadians have contributed to Canada during this time and how the Canadian government has shown their thanks in return.
Through movement, storytelling, and song, my artwork paints a story through time to our current day. It encourages others to learn, be self-reflective, and invites the question of how we would like to move forward. We can’t move forward without first acknowledging where we have come from.
Senyuè is a queer Chinese Canadian performer, producer, facilitator and expressive arts therapist with a major in Pacific and Asian studies with a focus on China. They have lived in both China and Canada and currently reside on the unceded traditional territories of the K’omoks Nation, colonially known as Cumberland, BC.
My Personal Journey
[Cén yuè - Mountain Moon]
This name came to me through my journey in China in 2007. It was a time of healing and self-discovery. At the time, I didn’t speak any Mandarin and had been taken in by a few local youths who would show me around this small town in South Western China. They would teach me one word at a time, pointing things out to me as we rode our bicycles through the town.
[Zìxíngchē - Bicycle]
I left that town of Jinhong by bicycle with my new Brazilian friend and lover Alek, 20 years my senior and the first self-proclaimed anarchist I had met, and his dog Tchye. We had a wonderful adventure, cycling through the Karst mountains of South Western China. Sometimes, we would travel by moonlight, and the world would look so different. Later, we would part ways, and I traveled to Nepal. There, I found myself again, high in the mountains, in self-reflection with the moon.
漂亮
[Piàoliang - Beautiful]
I love to make music from the heart. That doesn’t shy away from speaking hard truths, no matter what they may be. I hope to bring the listeners on a journey that feels immersive, tangible, and dreamy. I hope to create space not only for my truths and those of my ancestors but for other Chinese Canadians, other members of the queer community, and other folks from marginalized communities. I hope to inspire others to find their voices and tell their stories.
This is why, along with performing, I also love to facilitate workshops from a decolonized, trauma-informed, and inclusive place.