Flo Oy Wong, “My Mother’s Baggage: Paper Sister / Paper Aunt / Paper Wife,” 1998

mixed media - suitcase, scanned photo images, magazine text

Page 6 of “My Mother’s Baggage: Paper Sister / Paper Aunt / Paper Wife,” which consists of 6 suitcases, ranging in size. 

Collaged Text: “In 1968 My mother became a naturalized citizen and confessed that she was not my father’s sister ”

Typed text on paper: “She admitted alienage and fraud in that she was in fact the wife rather than the sister of the alleged brother, GEE Seow Hong, and that the three alleged nieces were a stepdaughter and SUBJECT’s own two blood daughters. She contracted a fraudulent marriage to a WONG Sheng in order to account for the birth of her subsequent native born children. Of the five brothers and one sister claimed by the SUBJECT’s husband, only he and GEE Seow King, deceased, were blood sons, the others being frauds.”

Collaged Text: “After living in the United States for 36 years my mother could finally acknowledge that she was my father’s wife.”