Vancouver-based artist Ho Tam proves that even a simple portrait can capture the lasting impact of Chinese pop singers. His series, Friends of my Youth, is on display now at the Chinese Canadian Museum as part of its featured exhibition, Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000, which runs from May 28th, 2025, to August 23rd, 2025.
Chinese Pop, C-Pop, is Chinese popular music, which can be divided into a couple subgenres: Mandopop, popular music sung in Mandarin, and Cantopop, popular music sung in Cantonese.
Ho Tam’s art spans several media, including video, photography, painting, drawing, graphics, and print media. The central core tying his work together is its focus: how race and identity, or identity politics, are represented in the media. This series of paintings, depicting famous Chinese singers as adults and children, is no different from the ethos of his work up to this point, grounding each idol in relatable childhood images while reminding viewers how much these pop icons—if you grew up with Chinese pop culture and pop music or pop icons from elsewhere—shaped their childhood. Friends of My Youth, therefore, speaks to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Reduced Inequalities.
With each painting, eleven singers in total, from Leslie Cheung to Faye Wong, are captured just from the top of their heads to their shoulders. There is no glamour to these paintings, no embellishment.
The adult versions of these pop sensations are not even painted in the midst of a performance, but, fitting the title of this series, they are reduced to familiar faces against a greyish-brown background. Their child selves, on the other hand, smile, smirk, and even look blankly out from their smaller square canvas, sitting against a background of bright blue skies dusted with clouds. Backgrounded by bright skies, we see the child versions of these celebrities in playful and joyous spaces. Some, like Sally Yeh, wear loose pigtails, while others sport messy and slightly uneven haircuts. These childish imperfections break apart the unattainable celebrity image cultivated by icons like Jacky Cheung, Leslie Cheung, Faye Wong, and others, reducing them to the humanity behind their stardom.
