CHINATOWN, 2011
This collection of comics takes an emotional, historical, social and psychological trip through Sydney's historic Chinatown district. The stories spotlight a seldom-exposed side of the neighbourhood, experienced by those who live and work in the area and hidden to visitors behind tourist attractions. These stories of childhood, business, local clubs, student life and migration encompass a wide breadth of tones and weight – from anecdotes of the everyday and slice of life observations to the significant, life changing, whimsical, frustrating, and poignant.
Produced by 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Art with the support of the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
Launched at the Sydney Opera House for Graphic Festival.
'Double Dragon Kung Fu Academy' was exhibited in the Society of Illustrators 54 Sequential Art Annual.
Screened at Asian Australian Film Forum and Network 2011.
64 pp on smooth cream wove stock.
Dimensions - (closed) 21.0 h x 14.7 w x 0.6 d cm
(open) 21.0 h x 28.2 w x 0.6 d cm
“Huynh prefers to let the diaspora speak visually by revealing what is hidden. In one of his earlier comics on Sydney’s Chinatown, “Double Dragon Kung Fu,” the step-by-step preparation for a New Year’s parade unfolds like a martial arts instruction manual. It’s a lyricized self-training coursebook, starting from spartan aerobics and building up to a full-fledged lion dance in a lavish banquet hall, and hand-building their own stage—a forest of slim pillars topped with tiny platforms, between which the lion dancers will spring nimbly in glittery furry pantaloons, the whole team melding into a singular mythical corpus. The lions lunge and bow in imperial splendor, but soon the team dissembles into the sum of its parts—a circle of friends, perched on a new horizon, bound by something deeper than tradition.
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PRESS
ABC Radio National, Oct 31 2010
Graphic Festival, Sydney Opera House, 2011
Graphic Festival, Sydney Opera House, 2011
Society of Illustrators 54 Annual 2011, Sequential category