Tseng Kwong Chi: Ambiguous Ambassador is held to coincide with the 30 th Anniversary season of Ping Chong & Company at La MaMa. Born in Hong Kong in 1950, Tseng Kwong Chi arrived in New York in 1978, after studying in Vancouver and Paris. He died of AIDS in 1990 of age 39.

A welcome addition to the East Village art scene, Tseng Kwong Chi started dressing in the Mao uniform that symbolized a potent stereotype for western observers. As participant and observer, Tseng made a series of group portraits of the artists who gravitated there, including Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and above all Keith Haring. As an exotic intruder, he documented the more fashionable festivities at the Metropolitan Museum such as Diane Vreeland's The Party of the Year for his Costumes at the Met portfolio in 1980.

In his most extensive series - East Meets West (also known as The Expeditionary Series) Tseng was both photographer and subject. Between 1979 and 1990 Tseng traveled all over the United States and throughout the world, inserting his own image in front of famous landmarks.

In 1990, Tseng's sister, the acclaimed choreographer-dancer, Muna Tseng collaborated with distinguished experimental director Ping Chong in SlutForArt, a tribute to her talented and beloved brother. Incorporating dance, sound and the photographs of Tseng Kwong Chi, SlutForArt has been described by Muna Tseng as a personal elegy that is also a tribute to "the death of the art community and an era ravaged by AIDS." It won the prestigious "Bessie" Award (New York Dance and Performance Award) in 1990 for Muna Tseng and Ping Chong.

As a photographer and unorthodox performer, Tseng Kwong Chi was one of the most pungent commentators on the eighties, the decade that coincided with his mature work. As a self described "inquisitive traveler, a witness of my time, and ambiguous ambassador," it now seems that he was ahead of his time in his grasp of issues of identity and cultural imperialism that have become so important to contemporary artists worldwide.