Lost Underground, Chapter 8

About the stories

The question “How did you meet the Misty Poets and why did they give their stories to you?” 

The response is a story within itself. In 1999, I was invited by the Chinese government to join a group of 31 artists from 9 countries to participate in a Cultural Exchange. As a 4th generation Chinese American, my mother cautioned my sister and I never to go to China because we didn’t know the language, look Chinese, and we would likely be kidnapped and sold into slavery. With 30 other artists, I figured I’d be safe among our numbers.  

At that time, I was a college arts administrator who was overworked and underpaid like most educators. I decided to use this trip to sit in the back of the bus and just be a quiet tourist. On the last day of the trip, our host who was a high ranking official came to the back of the bus for a conversation. Prior to this journey we sent resume’s and had background checks as a condition of receiving the invitation. Additionally, he traveled with us for two weeks, asking each delegate about their colleagues. So, he knew quite a lot about my background before we met that day.  

He was interested in the fact that I was a Chinese American and that I was a bridge between our two countries, I had a Master of Fine Art degree, and was an educator. He invited me to return to China to accompany him around the country to look at factories to see what was being designed and manufactured for the American consumer. All he really wanted to know was if these products might sell in the US, why and why not. The added bonus was that (1) I looked Chinese so he could take me into areas where foreigners were forbidden, (2) I didn’t speak the language so whatever conversation held between the government people and the factories I had no way of understanding, (3) my American sense of design was important to what might be produced or not produced for Americans. 

So off I went with him with my condition that I could bring friends. He paid all expenses for me and 6 friends and 2 of us stayed behind for what felt like industrial espionage. We became great friends. For many years I returned to China for more cultural exchanges where I went to university art colleges and met with professors and administrators.  

One day I received a call from an artist from Tsinghua University. He was visiting scholar at Virginia Commonwealth University. He had kept my business card several years before. He was coming to Seattle and asked if I could show him around. I agreed and asked how many days he would be in town. He explained that the school was paying for his trip but that they only paid for one day in Seattle and he had no more funds so only had the one day. He asked how many days did he need? I told him at least a week if he wanted to meet other artists and invited him to stay at my house for a couple of weeks. He did. Introducing him to several noteworthy Northwest artists, we became great friends. It was through this artist that I met Li Mei Ling (fictitious name). She was his student and was coming to Seattle. He asked me to host her and her boyfriend for dinner one evening, which I did. She was Li Mei Ling.  

During her visit we discovered that we each had stories that the other wanted to know and that seemed destined to stay buried. She had stories about the Cultural Revolution and the Misty Poets that their government wanted to erase from their history books. She had written her memoirs but could not publish them in China for fear of reprisal. My stories about the US Chinese Exclusion Act and the simultaneous Canadian Chinese Exclusion Act were stories that were nearly buried in this country. She wanted to know more about them and bring to China for publication. We decided to co-author a book. She stayed at my house where we recorded our stories for a full month.  

As our friendship grew, she introduced me to her friends who were part of the underground salons. For over 10 years, these artists and poets allowed me to interview them and record their stories which have been collaged into my audio and visual work. The participants felt that their stories must be told in a society where freedom of speech was imperative. As the podcast became a popular and inexpensive form of storytelling, these 8 chapters became the script for the 8-podcast series to be released in Spring 2025.