Cyborg Realities: Reimagining Asian Identity in a Posthuman World
Born in China and now based in New York, lens-based artist Ramona Jingru Wang delves into the intricate dynamics of care, connection, and identity through photography. Her work examines how images shape our perception of reality, fostering relationships between individuals and their environments. Drawing inspiration from Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto,” Wang envisions a world where Asian identities navigate as cyborgs within a dominant human-centric society.
Her series confronts the layered existence of cyborgs as fluid, transgressive, and marginalised beings, challenging stereotypes that cast Asian individuals as unemotional, robotic, and inhuman.
“In media and culture, Asian bodies are often depicted as hyper-intelligent yet detached, akin to machines,” Wang explains. “This isn’t just Orientalism—it’s Techno-Orientalism, where speculative fiction, such as Blade Runner, envisions futures dominated by high-tech metropolises like Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Shanghai, populated with sexualised and dehumanised Asian-looking cyborgs. My series aims to reclaim this narrative: my friends are cyborgs-and that’s okay.”
Through her work, Wang offers a vision that transcends binary perspectives, reconstructing the boundaries of identity, care, and daily life. She imagines a “dangerously happy ever after” where cyborgs thrive in a posthuman world, dismantling stereotypes and reconfiguring belonging.
