Many non‐migrant politicians, journalists, and scholars in migrant‐ destination societies
often represent migrants with self‐interested objectives and in specific instrumental
ways based on stereotypes. Yet research on symbolic interaction reveals migrants are
not passive victims. They actively and strategically shape their interactions with
non‐migrants. The artwork produced by Chinese migrant artists becomes a non‐verbal
channel through which the migrant can convey such challenges to non‐migrants who can
more empathetically appreciate these challenges. By analyzing the artwork and narratives
of first‐generation migrant artists, I show how art highlights various challenges
that migrants confront in their process of immigration, like enduring physical pain,
conforming to the institutions of the host society, navigating language barriers,
confronting regular cultural clashes, accepting social estrangement, and coping with
double consciousness. This paper shows how migrant art can serve as a semiotic object
that reveals important features of past symbolic interactions between migrants and
non‐migrants and offers a channel through which non‐migrants can potentially empathize
more with migrants' experiences.