Ma Qiusha
he Chinese generation born in the 1980s had educational opportunities that their parents weren’t afforded due to decades of sociopolitical turmoil. The trade-off was that they were often pressured to fulfill their parents’ dreams. Such dynamics are reflected (2007), included in the group exhibition “Performing Society: The Violence of Gender” at Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2/16–4/28). As Ma tells viewers about her family’s wish for her to have been a son, and her painful childhood piano lessons, her speech becomes increasingly strained. She eventually reveals a blade that had been hidden in her mouth, metaphorically conveying the pain she suppressed throughout her youth. A blade also appears in the video (2011), shown at “Sound on the 4th Floor” (7/7–2/2/20) at Daimler Contemporary Berlin. Wearing a pair of ice skates that she appears to drag backward down a concrete road, Ma comments on how social forces shape individuals.
