Organic Discovery: On Creativity and Belonging
Asian/American Transits #5—HONG KONG x PHYLLIS CHAN
Hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is staying safe during the intense broil of this summer season! I’m back with another edition of Asian/American Transits. Last time we peered into the mind of New York-based filmmaker Sally Tran, and now we’ll head back across the Pacific to talk Hong Kong and other cities with Phyllis Chan, one of the masterminds behind the premium knitwear brand YanYan.
1. Where did you grow up? How did this environment affect your sense of cultural identity?
I was born in California, but we moved to Taiwan when I was pretty young. My family then came back to the States, followed by Hong Kong when I was in first grade. When I was in third grade, we moved to Korea. A few years later, we returned to Hong Kong, where I stayed until I left for college. I’m starting to forget how old I was in each place.
In each new place we moved to, I learned a little bit more about myself and how other people viewed me, or my culture. Sometimes it was a difficult experience, if someone perceives your culture or your ethnicity in a way that doesn’t align with how you see yourself or your values. Even living in Hong Kong now is sometimes a strange experience, since the way I talk or the sum of my life experiences can make me seem like an outsider. But ultimately I’ve just learned to appreciate my experiences, understand my personal values, and try to be the best person I can be.
2. Can you describe how you came to your current creative practice? Who or what have been your biggest inspirations or influences?
After studying apparel at the Rhode Island School of Design, I worked in New York for the first ten years of my professional life. I pushed myself as hard as I could and let the people I worked for push me, too. To be honest, I genuinely love working—almost every part of the process of design is interesting to me, and inspiration comes quite easily and naturally. I’m not really someone who feels tortured about my work, if you know what I mean?
But towards the end of that first stage in my professional life, I felt intensely burnt out. I was afraid that I would lose my passion for work and creation. I felt really defeated every day. I don’t want to go through that again. I now know that what came so naturally to me isn’t something I can take for granted, that creativity is a muscle that needs to be nurtured and exercised and protected. Having our own company allows me to work with people I trust and build a mentally sound environment. I think that’s the most important part of my practice.
As for influences, our references can vary from season to season. But the ones we revisit over and over are usually this classic Hong Kong comic called 《13點》 Miss 13 Dots—which was something our moms read growing up and then bought for us when we were teenagers—and we like to juxtapose that with something we watched or read a lot growing up, like Daria and this manga called Neighborhood Story.
3. How did your time in New York shape your creative, personal, or social sensibilities?
I consider my time in New York life-changing and defining. It’s hard to imagine my life outside of the friendships I built or the experiences I had there. Perhaps age played a big part too; although I was braver and freer, I was also more sensitive and more emotional. I don’t consider myself brave or spontaneous or adventurous (when I’m not working, I think I’m a pretty lazy, apathetic person) but I found myself in situations that, in retrospect, seem super out of character for me. I guess they make great stories now. I think I am a more open-minded and freer spirit because of it.
4. Since moving back to Hong Kong, have you felt yourself moving in different creative directions than previously? Have you been inspired by any local narratives or aesthetics?
Hong Kong is such a special place for me. I don’t know if I appreciated it as much when I lived here in high school, but now I find myself returning to a lot of experiences I had or referencing neighborhoods that have changed, local movies we watched. Suzzie and I always visit Sham Shui Po when we start a new collection. It’s basically where all the craft stores and fabric and trim shops are. But also a lot of old people live there, so it’s fun for people-watching and inspo.
In high school, I didn’t ever consider working here as a creative. I felt pretty misunderstood and couldn’t imagine there being jobs or companies that suited me. But the wonderful thing about working for yourself is that it’s up to you how you build that space. And owning your difference and outsider status lets you play outside of the box, since everyone’s expectations of you are irrelevant anyways.
5. What significance do you see in finding, making, and/or nurturing community connections between Asia and America, broadly speaking?
I was born in the States and lived there from college into my early thirties, so fundamentally I consider being American as part of my identity. But my experience as an American is so different from someone who lived their whole life there, or even went to high school there. When I moved back to the States in the early 2000s, I was surprised by the experience of being Asian in America. Most people had never heard of Hong Kong, let alone knew where it was on the map, and “Asians” were expected to have one collective experience in America (which is obviously totally incorrect). It seems like this has changed a lot in the last few years, but I’ve been back in Hong Kong since 2019 and haven’t been able to experience it firsthand.
Our work at YanYan has always been much more about self-expression, personal experiences, and sharing what we love about our city and culture. We believe that if a garment is emotional and special, the wearer will value it more and take better care of it, which will make the piece last longer. So perhaps from a community aspect, we are looking for other people who share the same tastes or values as us?
Obviously we do consider what pieces will appeal to our American customers in terms of fit and color, as they are part of our market, but I wouldn’t say we think that much about being American-facing. I would say we are quite self-aware of how Chinese and Hong Kong culture and ethnicity are viewed in the West. We view how the West views us, and our garments both react to that and try to push those boundaries.
A lot of customers or fans tell us they feel a sense of familiarity or emotional connection to our clothing or our campaigns, even if they are not from Hong Kong or have never even been to Asia. Many of our customers in the West are of Asian descent. That kind of organic discovery, finding something that makes you feel special and connects with you on a personal level, is really beautiful and makes our work really worthwhile.
See more of Phyllis’s work on Instagram @yanyanknits and check out YanYan’s website for the full catalogue. Stay cozy, stay snazzy! 👵🪡🧵
💖whaaa what a cool brand!! I love their style!