Kendell Yan
she/her they/them

Kendell looks at the camera with slightly parted lips. She is wearing heavy makeup with a white base, red lip, thin arched brows, long eyelashes, and bright red blush and eyeshadow. She has dark hair styled in an bun and wears a garment that is tailored to fit of a qipoa but has cloth buttons symetrically down the front in a style common in tang shirts.

Job title
multidisciplinary artist   events producer   artistic director  
Identity categories
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trans femme   nonbinary   queer   Chinese  
Alternate names

甄念菻

Maiden China

Locations of practice

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Canada

British Columbia, Canada

Images
Kendell looks at the camera with slightly parted lips. She is wearing heavy makeup with a white base, red lip, thin arched brows, long eyelashes, and bright red blush and eyeshadow. She has dark hair styled in an bun and wears a garment that is tailored to fit of a qipoa but has cloth buttons symetrically down the front in a style common in tang shirts.

Kendell looks at the camera with slightly parted lips. She is wearing heavy makeup with a white base, red lip, thin arched brows, long eyelashes, and bright red blush and eyeshadow. She has dark hair styled in an bun and wears a garment that is tailored to fit of a qipoa but has cloth buttons symetrically down the front in a style common in tang shirts.

The drag artist Maiden China stands between two chairs looking to the right. Behind them is a window with Chinese-style lattice work, and banners with Chinese Characters. Maiden China wears heavy white face-makeup, a squinned body-suit, and has a shaved head.

The drag artist Maiden China stands between two chairs looking to the right. Behind them is a window with Chinese-style lattice work, and banners with Chinese Characters. Maiden China wears heavy white face-makeup, a squinned body-suit, and has a shaved head.

Black-and-white images of drag artist Maiden China are collaged over one another so that 4 images of the artists's face are in the center, with multiple arms emerging from each depiction. Maiden China wears an elaborate headpiece with a beaded veil extending in front of her face. She wears heavy white foundation, dark lipstick and a see-through mesh-top.

Black-and-white images of drag artist Maiden China are collaged over one another so that 4 images of the artists's face are in the center, with multiple arms emerging from each depiction. Maiden China wears an elaborate headpiece with a beaded veil extending in front of her face. She wears heavy white foundation, dark lipstick and a see-through mesh-top.

Metadata
Biography

甄念菻 / Kendell Yan (she/they) is a second generation Chinese, trans-femme, non-binary artist living on the stolen lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. She is a multidisciplinary artist, event producer, and artistic director at Queer Based Media. Her artistic practice includes performance, visual art, sculpture, digital media, makeup, writing, and costuming, and is primarily centred around her drag identity, Maiden China. Through this lens she explores themes of vulnerability, queer ritual, the concept of the “hyphen”, and liminal experience, by incorporating elements of classical Chinese opera, glamour, punk, and intimate contact performance art. They perform regularly as a member of the House of Rice, “Canada’s” premiere all-Asian drag family, as well as one of the Darlings, an experimental non-binary drag theatre collective. Kendell’s work has been featured by the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Upintheair Theatre, rEvolver festival, The Array Festival, the PuSH International Performing Arts Festival, the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival, The Transform Cabaret Festival, and Outstages.

Vines Art Socity. “Artist: Maiden China.” Accessed April 21, 2025. https://www.vinesartsociety.com/artists/maiden-china.
Filmography