Jeff Wall Mimic Essay

The Mimic

Let us imagine, what would an american man do when he feels discriminated by local people in an asian country? I do not believe he would just ignore and go away, instead, he might argue or even start a fight with them. Actually, I have seen that happened in my city, just because a Chinese young man said “Lao Wai”, which is an informal way of saying foreigners in Chinese, and a young Caucasian man hitted him in the face. However, that did not happen in Jeff Wall’s photography, “Mimic”, which caught an opposite situation where there is one Asian man and two Caucasian people in North America. Although the Asian man perceives the vicious discrimination from the white man who gives him a middle finger, he chooses to ignore and walk away. I think he is nervous because he glimpses at the white man with his right hand in pocket as if he is holding something back. For Jeff Wall considers himself a painter instead of a photographer, this moment he

In that time, America was still leading the world economy. People then were ignorant to those from other part of the world, for example, Asian people. It is hard to tell whether the Asian figure just a “voyeur” experiencing the prosperous country or a “walker” who lives there. Either way, the white man clearly does not consider the Asian man one of his own kind. On the other hand, the Asian man seems to dress like an American, he is mimicking the American people. Why? I would say that the culture in most Asian countries teaches people to “endure”, to “be silent”, to “blend in”, just like the silent lamb who sees its mate being brutally killed, peeled, and silently awaits till its own round coming without making a “baa”. There is nothing the lamb can do. Sadly, there is nothing the Asian man could do. He among numerous other non-caucasian people are undergoing the transparent racism--you can feel it, but you cannot see it, which makes you unable to accuse of