Interview by Kyla Jamieson
Anita Cheung is a Vancouver-based entrepreneur and creative who recently launched one of our new favourite websites, whereareyoureallyfrom.org (WAYRF), which features the portraits of twenty-one women of colour alongside interview clips and insights. The project evolved from Cheung’s personal investigation into what it means to be a woman of colour, particularly in our current political climate. “We are just as diverse and complex as our white counterparts,” Cheung says, and she wanted to hear “how others saw and experienced their own coloured-ness.”
Of the women featured on WAYRF, who answered a call Cheung put out on Instagram, she says, “I’m a big believer that those who show up are the right people, and these women are just that, the right people.” With this project, Cheung has created a vital space and platform for women of colour to discuss what she calls “the journey that is (re)discovering our roots and our culture,” alongside topics like interracial marriage, creating workplace cultures that embrace and support diversity, and navigating the individualism of western cultures while honouring family traditions. Read on to get to know the multi-talented maker behind the project.
1. What’s happening around you—either right around you or outside of where you are?
I’m writing in the solarium of my apartment which is situated on a busy downtown street. It is a cloudy and grey day—a Vancouver specialty. It’s 9 a.m. so I can hear the traffic (and see the traffic) from commuters, muffled by the distance of sixteen floors. Down there, I can see people walking briskly with their umbrellas. Up here, it is still. (Whenever I work from home, I’m always awed by how one can find stillness despite chaos should one simply rise above enough. ) On days like today, I am thankful for my slow mornings and the ability to work, cozily, from home.
2. Why do you live where you live?
Vancouver is home. I moved away for part of university and although I loved being in a new, exciting city, I found that I missed being close to my family and my community/network of friends. My sister and I are particularly close and now my one-year-old niece and I are close as well. I’ve always had visions of living a nomadic life and found that I was always a little disappointed in myself for not following through. That is, until a birth chart reader told me on my twenty-sixth birthday that in my past life, I was a nomad and that in this life, I will find more meaning and happiness in cultivating a foundation.
3. What are you looking forward to this week?
I am looking forward to watching Black Panther on Friday.
4. What advice would you give an aspiring or emerging creator?
Just do it. Nike said it first, but I think we are all plagued with doubts if we dilly-dally for too long so just doing it, pushing it out there, and birthing that baby of a project is the way to do it.
5. What’s your morning routine?
For two and a half years, my morning routine consisted of rushing out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to teach private yoga & meditation at 6 a.m. I’m currently on a hiatus until May so am making the most of my slower mornings. I wake up around 8 a.m. and spend a half hour cuddling my partner (his commute is a five-minute walk so we are both afforded slow mornings) before getting out of bed. I start my morning with a glass of water for myself, and a quick check-in to see if any of my houseplants need some water as well. From there, I hop on the computer and start plugging away at emails just to get them off of my plate. Once those are done, I’ll have breakfast, catch up on the news, meditate and journal, and then head out to a meeting or the studio. (I co-founded a meditation studio a year and a half ago.)
6. What’s the first art project you remember making, and how does it relate to your current work?
My first art project as a child was building a Snow White diorama when I was seven and I’m not too sure how it relates to my current work. However, my first “art project” as an adult was last year’s photo series “#GLITTERGURLZ” which explored the topics of consent, sexuality, and the male/female gaze using glitter and nudity. I’d say it’s related to my latest project because they both have an element of conversation behind them.
7. What’s one risk you’re glad you took?
Picking up my camera for leisure and calling myself a photographer (albeit nervously). Had you asked me a year ago if I considered myself a creative, the answer would have been “no.” I made a conscious decision last year to step outside of my wellness/yoga/meditation bubble and embrace my multi-faceted self by diving into creativity and play.
8. Is there any advice you like ignoring?
I ignore most advice, really, but I’m particularly adept at ignoring my parents’ advice. (Sorry mom!)
9. Do you have a favourite word? Or a least favourite word? What is it and why do you like/dislike it?
There are so many great words out there! (Side note: I actually have a little notebook where I write down new words, favourite words, etc.) I love the word pedestrian. It’s a slightly elevated way to describe someone or something as “basic.” Avocado toasts? Delicious, but so pedestrian. Using the word “basic”? So pedestrian.
10. Is there a public space you’re fond of? Will you describe it?
Vancouver is situated so close to some amazing natural parks and forests. I don’t get out there too often, but I love going for a walk through Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. The way the forest smells after the rain, the squish of the mud beneath my feet, and the daylight filtering through the trees is basically magic (no Hogwarts needed). My favourite part is when the wooded paths break out into little rock outcroppings over the ocean—when you step out, you’re blasted with the smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves.
11. What are you most proud of?
I am most proud of my resilience. As someone who first experienced mental health issues when I was thirteen, it’s been a topsy-turvy emotional road to the ripe old age of twenty-seven. Not all days are good days, and not all days are bad days—but every time I get back on the horse, I’m reminded of my resilience.
12. What’s next?
My next two projects are more personal and intimate in nature. One is a mini video series that includes visual depictions and narration from my journal excerpts when I was depressed/suicidal. The other is a recipe/coffee table book I’m working on with my sister (also a creative), which will include photos and stories from our parents’ childhood in Vietnam before the war, and stories of their escape from post-war Vietnam to Canada.
Kyla Jamieson is PRISM’s Prose Editor. She lives and relies on unceded traditional Coast Salish territory and her work has appeared in Poetry Is Dead, SAD Mag, ELLE Canada, Room Magazine, and elsewhere. Find her writing at kylajamieson.tumblr.com.