A life in "Chinese drag"; photographer Tseng Kwong Chi preserved the subway works of Keith Haring and posed his own questions about being gay and Asian in Western culture. (art).

A man stands stiffly in a vintage Mao uniform, mirrored glasses masking his face, the Statue of Liberty looming behind him. It's a striking, eerie image until you realize the man also wears a badge that reads SLUTFORART.

Welcome to the world of Tseng Kwong Chi, the openly gay photographer whose "Expeditionary" series of self-portraits from the 1980s--all incorporating his Chinese Communist uniform, a famous backdrop plucked from Western culture, and the SLUTFORART tag--raises questions about race and identity while keeping tongue firmly planted in cheek.

"He's in Chinese drag," says dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones, Tseng's friend and sometime subject. "We're looking through the deadpan eye of the outsider but with great wit and levity. It shows the silliness of identity and cuts to the heart of American iconography."

Tseng Kwong Chi, born in Hong Kong as Joseph Tseng, succumbed to complications from AIDS in 1990 at age 39, but the first career-spanning exhibit of his work, "Tseng Kwong Chi: A Retrospective," opened in Philadelphia on March 19, the third annual exhibition in PrideFest America's "Artistic Alternatives" series. (The debut year featured Andy Warhol, and 2001 saw a group show of iconic gay artists.) Despite the gay context of the show, Tseng's work eschews focusing on sexuality in favor of dissecting what it means to be Asian in Western society.

It's a theme that still connects with a gay audience. "Kwong Chi brings a separateness in the way he presents himself, setting himself apart," says Joe Farrell, a PrideFest America board member. "Separateness resonates in our community."

Conceived and funded by PrideFest America--a nonprofit group that also sponsors an annual symposium and festival of cultural and political programs, this year running from April 29 through May 5--the retrospective draws heavily from Tseng's "Expeditionary" series but also features some of his other work, much of it created in 1980s New York with Jones and Keith Hating. While collaborating with Hating, Tseng was unknowingly serving as documentarian, preserving art that has since disappeared. "Haring's subway drawings now exist only in [Tseng's] photos," says Amy Schlegel, curator of the Philadelphia Art Alliance, which is housing the show. "There's a nostalgia for that time, before the AIDS epidemic hit hard."

The exhibition also showcases Tseng's unique personality. "[My brother] lived a very vibrant life," notes Muna Tseng, the artist's sister and executor of his estate. Indeed, Tseng photographed everything from the World Trade Center and Mount Rushmore to group shots of Moral Majority leaders and Haring's inner circle. Nearly all the photos feature Tseng--usually an impassive observer, occasionally doing something unexpected such as clutching balloons--and always wearing his uniform. (After donning it in a hurry when he needed a black-tie outfit, Tseng realized that he was treated like a visiting dignitary whenever and wherever he wore it.)

"He was one of the first to use himself as the poseur," adds his sister--a sentiment echoed by Julie Saul, whose New York gallery is concluding an exhibit titled "Tseng Kwong Chi in America: Vintage Prints, 1979-1987." "The performance aspect is very much a part of his work," says Saul.

Both retrospectives put Tseng on the same level as his better-known friends Haring and Jones. "It's time to raise his visibility and recognition," says Schlegel.

Habib wrote about Joel Wachs in The Advocate's February 5 issue.