Kalani High School senior Atona Chan has been creating art for as long as she can remember, and a recent Cultural Exchange trip to China helped her to see the world, and her artwork, in a whole new way.
Chan says art has always been a meaningful part of her life.
“I have been doing art for a long time since like when I was a child,” she explains.
To her, doing art is a way to express herself.
“It’s like my way of speaking,” she says. “It’s like my voice.”
Most of Chan’s recent projects have been drawing and painting. Aside from this, she likes to sew clothes and work on crafts, but she has had a main focus on art all four years at Kalani.
Most recently, Chan was chosen as a student representative of the school’s Cultural Exchange trip to China.
“I was actually recommended by, I think, my 11th-grade ELA teacher,” she explains. “I also had her for freshman year.”
The teacher was Ms. Yang Chan.
“My favorite part would be meeting the students,” she says.
Explaining the experience helped Chan understand what life is like for students in China.
One of the most surprising things Chan learned came during a visit to Hainan Island. There, the group studied the Li ethnic group and learned about the island’s unique environment. She remembers learning how plants had adapted to survive.
“The bus driver guide was talking about the plants and trees in Hainan Island and was talking about how they are immune to different diseases,” she says.
She explained that this helped protect the island from many illnesses.
Food was another high point of the trip. Chan said they tried many traditional dishes.
“In Hainan, we ate a lot of dishes that have coconuts and also bamboo and sticky rice,” she says.
She describes the food as “really, really amazing” and says, “We all loved it.”
Compared with what she normally eats at home, the flavors were very different.
“I usually eat Japanese food. I feel like it was really different. Maybe a stronger flavor. Just really distinct,” she explains.
Overall, the trip changed her view of China.
“Before that, I had never visited China, so all of my views just came from all the news and social media,” Chan adds on.
Meeting people and learning the history helped her see the culture differently.
“I realized there are such lovely and welcoming people there,” she says.
She added that China is “a place where there is so much diversity, so much culture.” For Chan, both art and travel continue to be instrumental in shaping her identity and her voice, one new experience at a time.
