Jeannie Hua
Meditation
2022
Video, 3:52 minutes

This work is on loan for the exhibition, Living Here, at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, June 20 - December 20, 2025

“The contributions of Chinese Americans have often been devalued or omitted,” Jeannie Hua told Double Scoop in 2023. “It makes me think about what we base our knowledge of history on. How legitimate are records made by those in power? They’re not objective. It’s what people record that is passed down. I have no choice but to make tracings out of the traces of history that I glimpse and add them to that record.” In Meditation, she lulls the viewer with the language and music of a soothing mindfulness session before asking them to meditate on something very different. The video is part of Did You Know Chinese Americans Fought in the American Civil War?, a body of work inspired by Hua’s research into the approximately fifty Chinese Americans who served in both Confederate and Union armies.