Sean Cham

Eastern Promise is a series that examines how colonial photography has shaped, and continues to shape, the perception and understanding of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia.

The work is based on late 19th-century and early 20th-century photographs taken by Western photographers of the Chinese community in then-colonial Malaya. Some of these photographs were intended as ethnographic studies, and were sold as souvenirs to European markets. These images have now been digitally reproduced and stored in archives across Europe, alongside its physical copies.

In these historic images, specific props, costumes, poses, and backdrops were used to contextualise and exoticize the Southeast Asian setting. Thus, to make these stereotypes and artificial constructions more apparent, Eastern Promise extends the colonial image beyond its frame through self-portraiture staged within the domestic setting of the artist’s home in London.

Eastern Promise aims to interrogate how these images reinforced racial stereotypes and upheld imperial power. The resulting photographs unpack the artifices of the medium while critically examining the enduring legacies of colonialism.