Trans In The World - Mandy In China - Kuan Yin

I had been pre-occupied by Kuan Yin (or Guanyin) for a long time before going to China. The thought of a bodhisattva, - a kind of saint whose existence bridges earth and heaven – who travels with Buddhism from India as a male and is adopted in China as a female was so powerfully how I saw the transgender journey that I read a lot about her and found myself identifying with her. And Kuan Yin is the equivalent in many ways of the Virgin Mary, offering compassion and love, mercy and a route to forgiveness, supporting many in their desires for parenthood, good health and freedom from fear. Who wouldn’t identify with her if they could? When I planned my journey round the Pearl River Delta I knew that I would have to be Kuan Yin and I duly commissioned clothing, and purchased accessories to make that possible. In the Delta I planned walks as the bodhisattva between Buddhist Temples dedicated to Kuan Yin, and I carried these out in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macao. After the Delta I travelled to Shanghai to represent my home city, Liverpool, which is twinned with it, and again visited a temple to Kuan Yin, in the same spirit. These were some of the most memorable actions I have carried out as an artist. Travelling by bus, tram, metro and on foot from one end of Hong Kong to another was a particular epic. Gathering a following of hundreds in a park in Guangzhou was possibly the most highly-charged moment of my career. And being “moved on” by the Shanghai police for disrupting the traffic flow was a challenge I couldn’t have risen to without the dedicated support as well as documentation of Vincent Assante Di Cupillo whose command of the customs and language of the cities kept me safe and free. I owe him everything. All of the walks are captured as photo-essays, and there are many images awaiting publication one day, so here are just a few of the many – four from each of the walks - to capture the essence of the actions, - not so much an adventure or a performance as a spiritual self-translation.