“Jade Rabbit”
2022
50 x 50cm
Acrylic on Digital Archival Print
1/1

Series Title - “The Paiseh Piece: A poem, I guess” In chinese mythology, the jade rabbit was granted immortality and sent to the moon to make elixirs. Phua reimagines the ending to the graciousness of the rabbit in this image, as part of the “The Paiseh Piece: A poem, I guess”

“The Paiseh Piece” by Phua Juan Yong & weish
adj. Hokkien. A local expression of embarrassment, shame, or simply feeling shy. The Paiseh Piece — a picture of the mindscape of the chronically paiseh.

Paiseh manifests in small ways; like not daring to take the last piece on a shared plate, but it also permeates other ways we perform the self – how much space we dare to take up in the world, constantly careful not to impose our will on others.