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Chun Lai (b. 1943. China / Taiwan / Denmark)

Strong women and laborious work

is founder and leader of the Chinese Museum in Denmark. Chun Lai came with her husband who worked in one of the first Chinese restaurants in Copenhagen. She has always worked hard and as a seamstress in a factory in Copenhagen, she had the highest score for piecework while, during the same period, she gave birth to five children, as both she and her husband worked hard to provide a good education for them. During my visit to them in Istedgade in Copenhagen with her daughter as supporting interpreter, she gave the impression of a highly purposeful, active and progressive woman. She is, therefore, the only figurehead who is not modeled in a dress or with closed legs. Instead, I have carved out steps on the body, where a child sits on each step. The steps also serve as a kind of repeating pattern or zigzag stitching.

interview with Chun on her own language - Unknown Artist
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Working sketches of Chun Lai

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