Chinamaxxing
Are we living in a very Chinese time?
This program is in English
At a time when Chinese culture is becoming more visible worldwide and is part of broader geopolitical shifts, we find ourselves in what we might describe as “a very Chinese time.” On social media we’re seeing a trend called “Chinamaxxing,” in which elements of Chinese culture, from philosophy to aesthetics and lifestyle, are suddenly being embraced and glorified. On June 6, Felix Meritis and YIQI Collective invite you to critically engage with a pressing question: who holds the power to define Chinese culture, and how can that power be reclaimed by the diaspora?
On this evening, we invite you to reflect with us on soft power, Orientalism, authenticity, and the fine line between cultural appreciation and appropriation. As for many people in the Chinese diaspora the concept of Chinamaxxing clashes with past experiences in which the same culture was stigmatized or portrayed negatively. At the same time, the program creates a space for reclaiming and celebrating Chinese identity, not as an aesthetic or trend, but as a lived experience and a source of knowledge, resilience, and connection.
The program will start with a collective ritual by Luci Rain creating a shared, mindful space to set the stage for the panel discussion. During the panel talk moderated by Zoë Horsten, two experts with a background in journalism and new media will provide context and analysis regarding the rise of “Chinamaxxing”.
This is followed by an interactive conversation where the audience is invited to share and reflect on how their lived experience and how identity and culture are experienced, reclaimed, and celebrated in practice.
Movement artist Qiyun Zhen will perform ‘A Knot Manifesto’ combining Chinese Folk Dance, Newway Voguing, and Contortion.
We will end the evening with DJ & Drinks and a community market where various Chinese creatives/entrepreneurs will show and sell their work.
Line-up
About Yiqi
YIQI is a Dutch-based creative platform and collective connecting the global Chinese diaspora through culture, art, and storytelling. Rooted in a bicultural perspective, they explore identity, belonging, and heritage across generations and borders. From campaigns and films to community events and collaborations, YIQI creates spaces where stories are shared and connections are made, amplifying diverse voices and shaping a new wave of Chinese creatives worldwide.
Zoë Horsten | moderator
Zoë Horsten is a dynamic moderator, program maker, and creative producer. She is involved with festivals that dive into different landscapes of the arts, working with Amsterdam based organizations such as FIBER Festival, IDFAand Summer Dance Forever. As a Dutch-Chinese person with an adoption background, she has always been drawn to the meaning of home, belonging, and identity.
Alongside their involvement in the cultural arts sector, Zoë creates programs that foster space-making, community building and empowerment for queer and Asian identities. Since 2022 she joined Pan Asian Collective, and in 2024 she co-founded Eastern Playgrounds, a queer/Asian-led initiative that organizes community events where people of Asian descent come together to celebrate culture, art, and connection through mahjong, karaoke, food and creative collaborations.
Vera Yijun Zhou
Vera Yijun Zhou is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and publisher whose work is focused on the production and circulation of images in the new media environment. Her work and research deconstruct and translate the symbolic language created by conceptual theories by documenting and analyzing individuals’ narratives.
Vera was born and raised in China in the early page of its globalization and moved to the Netherlands at the onset of the pandemic. Her work follows and reflects the multiple social contradictions of the post-globalization era she is experiencing, she uses the consumption and circulation of images as a metaphor to capture the alienated reality within and underlying images of neoliberalism, identity politics, and censorship surveillance.
Luci Rain
Luci Rain is a Chinese artist based in Amsterdam, creating ritual based performances that explore identity, spirituality, and cultural ownershi. She describes herself as a rebellious Chinese princess singing the secret spells. Through mantra, voice, and ritual, she combines traditional wisdom with contemporary sound. creates shared spaces where audiences are invited not just to observe, but to feel, reflect, and reconnect with their own relationship to culture and self.
Qotton
Qotton (Qiyun Zheng) is a dancer and performance artist whose practice stems from Chinese Folk Dance, Voguing, Contortion, and Butoh. Rooted in Shanghai’s underground queer clubs, they were a member of China’s first Ballroom house and are now thriving in the European scene. With a background in English-Chinese Translation, their work explores the contorting body as a site of cultural hybridity, queerness, and resistance, approaching performance as a translatable language between cultures.
As cultural programmer at Felix Meritis Savannah specialises in themes at the intersection of the creative industry, (digital) culture and social change. With her Dutch-Chinese background she also resonates with themes such as diasporic heritage, belonging and ESEA representation. Her work is rooted in storytelling, co-creation, and community-driven initiatives, with a focus on amplifying underrepresented voices.
She develops multidisciplinary programs that invite to connect, to critically reflect on dominant narratives and inspire to collectively create new imaginaries.
Would you like to attend this program, but don’t have the means to pay for a ticket? Send an email to info@felixmeritis.nl, we can work something out.
Note: By booking this ticket, you agree to potentially be photographed during the event.