Figure 5

Citation

Dudley (Hamilton, New York). “Moung Kyau.” Date: circa 1865. Greg French Collection. Mirror of Race, 22 Jan. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/104. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Title

Moung Kyau

Subject

Moung Kyau

Creator

Dudley (Hamilton, New York)

Date

Date: circa 1865

Type

Studio Portrait

Identifier

Figure 5

Rights Holder

Greg French Collection

Original Format

Carte de visite

Factual Commentary

In another double-exposure portrait, Moung Kyau (1841-1883) poses in the traditional clothes of the Karen people from Burma, where he was born, and Western dress. Kyau was not an immigrant but rather a visitor to the United States: he converted to Christianity in Burma, came to America to study the ministry at college, and returned to Burma to do missionary work there. Temporary visitors like Kyau might be treated with considerable interest, both both because their exotic background evoked curiosity and because their conversion to both Christianity and white Western customs confirmed a sense of cultural triumph for whites. Kyau himself seems to give equal weight here to each side of his double identity.