Sally Tran is a writer and director from New Zealand by way of Vietnam, living in NYC. Sally is also the owner and designer behind fashion label Sonny Tann.
In place of artwork or a print, Sally has designed original merch titled ‘Tôi Là’ which means, well, keep reading to find out.
All proceeds of ‘Tôi Là’ will be donated to Red Canary Song, a grassroots collective organizing to protect the rights of Asian and migrant sex workers.
Young Hero sat down for a quick Q&A with Sally. Here’s what we found out about the inspiration behind the design and Sally’s Art For Action to #StopAsianHate:
Tell us a little bit about yourself: where you're from / you & your family's background.
A: I'm a film and video director and my stories that weave different cultures and experiences together with an emphasis on design and bright colour. As a little side hustle, I run a fashion brand Sonny Tann, where I procure unique and end-of-roll fabrics and design limited run sets. I’m sort of from everywhere—I grew up in New Zealand, but I travel back to Vietnam, where my family is from, every year to hang with relatives in District 4 and take on the Saigon grind as a commercial Director. But most of the time you’ll find me biking around in Brooklyn, NYC.
Can you elaborate on the artwork you made: The story behind it. Personally, what does the art symbolize to you?
A: Every reaction to the hate crimes and the tragic murders towards AAPI is different, and my knee jerk reaction was an overwhelming, deep sadness mixed tinged with anger as I realized that I, too, needed to educate myself about AAPI history in a deep way. Particularly in American history and film—a culture that permeates out to the rest of the world—Asian men have been ridiculed and once weren’t allowed to have spouses, whereas Asian women have been reduced to exotic, sexual objects, and submissive stereotypes. I’m still educating myself, but having the knowledge of history is a tool to help me work out how best to show up for my community and to speak up for Asian women when we have been so often silenced.
Tôi là means I AM in Vietnamese, it’s a general greeting phrase when introducing yourself; Toi La Sally. In spite of the many hard and difficult conversations I’ve had and learning more about our collective trauma, for me I’ve realized that this history has only reaffirmed my pride in my heritage and in being a Vietnamese woman. So Tôi là represents for me, proudly claiming one’s roots, without shame.
In my design, I’ve re-re-appropriated iconic Asian imagery of love and peace—a Korean hand symbol for a heart and the yin yang symbol—icons that have often been commercialized in the Western World. The numbers on the back represent a selection of significant dates of hate crimes and murders that have occurred against AAPI:
02.28.2021
03.16.2021
06.23.1982
04.26.1975
05.27.1887
09.02.1885
10.24.1871
1882-1943
1850
These dates are also scenes in a short film I'm directing, which is a project similar to the short hybrid-doc I made last summer in the wake of George Flyod’s murder, 60 Years and Still. My goal of this next film is for it to be a resource for people to educate themselves more about AAPI history that has been a bit swept underneath the carpet.
What does the organization you chose mean to you and why that specific one? Why do you feel others should be aware of it & supporting it as well?
A: Modern day stereotypes of the ‘Asian character’ stem from the mass arrival of Asians to the United States during the gold rush, which sadly still influence how modern Asian men and women are perceived by others today. Racist jokes and tropes against Asians have been normalized in Western society, and Asian women especially are often sexualized, either overtly or with understated ignorance. Red Canary Song is a grassroots collective of Asian and migrant sex workers that organizes to protect their rights, and I hope to bring awareness to their work because they help protect some of the most vulnerable communities. This organization is unique in that they are represented by the real migrants and sex workers of the communities they are championing.