Cover Kitty Tsui on the cover of ‘On Our Backs’ magazine (1988) (Photo: taonlinemag.com)
Kitty Tsui on the cover of ‘On Our Backs’ magazine (1988) (Photo: taonlinemag.com)
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Eaton Hong Kong is hosting the ‘Kitty Tsui Archive Exhibition’ as part of its It’s Morphing Time! programme that honours the city’s LGBTQIA+ community
“Nice Chinese girls don’t sing, swear, or shout out loud. Nice Chinese girls talk with their eyes averted … don’t question, argue, or complain, suffer in silence, and endure with a smile,” recites Kitty Tsui in a documentary based on her life, Nice Chinese Girls Don’t (2019), directed by Jennifer Abod, which was screened at the opening of the Kitty Tsui Archive Exhibition at Eaton Hong Kong. The lines she is seen reciting are from her own poem, Nice Chinese Girls Don’t—the title of which Abod has borrowed for her documentary.
It’s safe to say that, in her own life, 70-year-old Hong Kong-born, US-based Tsui has upended all expectations of what being a “nice Chinese girl” means. Instead, she has forged her own path—becoming the first Asian American lesbian author to be published, a bodybuilding champion, one of the foremothers of the Asian Pacific Islander lesbian and feminist movement, and a founding member of Unbound Feet, the first Chinese American women’s performance group.
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Eaton Hong Kong’s exhibition, which will run till July 22, honours all of her achievements. It showcases samples of the Tsui’s prose and poems that span across 50 years, and is curated by TA magazine—a new, local and queer-focused magazine helmed by photographer and artist Kary Kwok. The exhibition is also part of It's Morphing Time!, a programme at Eaton Hong Kong that celebrates pride and the fluidity found in queerness.
For Kwok, Tsui is one of the most influential Asian figures in the LGBTQIA+ movement. “We lack honesty about the way we live,” Kwok says, “But in Kitty’s work, there’s honesty; she’s very bold about her desires, which opened doors for the younger generation, especially the Asian American queer community.”
Above Tsui’s first book “The Words of A Woman Who Breathes Fire” (1983) (Photo: taonlinemag.com)
Tsui’s first book “The Words of A Woman Who Breathes Fire” (1983) (Photo: taonlinemag.com)
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Born in 1952, Tsui moved from Hong Kong to London as a child where she was the only Asian student in her school. Her family then moved back to Hong Kong when she was 11, where she attended an elite English-language school, before moving again after five years in the city, this time emigrating to San Francisco.
From all the transitions she’d made in her childhood, Tsui became adept at navigating otherness while coming into accepting her own; but she found out that sentiment wasn’t shared when she finally came out to family and friends in 1973 and was rejected by them. So, she took it upon herself to nurture and strengthen the Asian American LGBTQIA+ community in San Francisco, where she had lived since she was 16. However, she found herself dealing with a new struggle: being eroticised and exoticised as one of the few queer Asian Americans in San Francisco’s LGBTQIA+ community.
Ten years after coming out, Tsui published The Words of A Woman Who Breaths Fire (1983), which made her the first Asian American lesbian author to be published. Since then, her prose and poems have been printed in more than 90 anthologies and journals worldwide and have been translated to Japanese, German and Italian.
Above The “Kitty Tsui Archive Exhibition” at Eaton Hong Kong (Photo: taonlinemag.com)
The “Kitty Tsui Archive Exhibition” at Eaton Hong Kong (Photo: taonlinemag.com)
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Tsui broke barriers in athletics too, winning a bronze and gold medal, at the 1986 and 1990 Gay Games respectively, in the women’s physique and bodybuilding category. Through participating in bodybuilding shows, she challenged established norms of what women’s bodies should look like. “Back then, there wasn’t a lot of vocabulary to express what non-binary [means],” Kwok says. “She really challenged the idea of masculinity and femininity.”
She also appeared on the cover of erotic lesbian magazine On Our Backs in 1988 and 1990, which made her the first Asian American cover star for the publication. This milestone and the significance of it can be reflected in the words of Nice Chinese Girls Don’t, which includes Tsui’s message that “beauty is on every part of a woman”. She also insisted that the poem be included in the magazine alongside her photos, to reiterate that she “wasn’t just a body, but a writer too”.
Considering the representation, hope and courage she provides, it’s fortunate for the LGBTQIA+ community that Tsui had the courage herself to embrace her queerness. In her words: “I was born a nice Chinese girl. It’s a good thing it was a phase I outgrew.”
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Aaina was the Arts and Culture Editor of Tatler Asia. A passion for history and all things visual led her in the pursuit of art history. With extensive experience in the art world working for a range of art institutions, she combined her passion and expertise in the form of art and culture journalism. Prior to Tatler, Aaina worked as a culture reporter for South China Morning Post and editor at the online art platform Cobo Social. Additionally, she has contributed to a variety of prestigious art publications including Art Review, The Art Newspaper, Ocula, Art Agenda, Artsy, Design Anthology, and Artomity. Follow her on Instagram.
