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As a youngster growing up in China, Cecilia Aisin Gioro knew better than to talk about being related to the country’s last emperor. What stopped her was social pressure against acknowledging she was the grandniece of Puyi Aisin Gioro, or Henry Pu Yi, as he was called in the West.

The Aisin Gioro name remains unpopular in China because it reminds people of a time when a minority group — the Manchus from the northeast — ruled the country for almost 300 years.

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The surname is also linked to a period in China’s history many Chinese would like to forget. In the last decades of the reign of the Aisin Gioro family, China became so weak and ineffective, it couldn’t stand up to foreign powers such as Great Britain and Japan, which forced concessions on the country in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Through her paintings, Cecilia Aisin Gioro delivers her story about the Qing Dynasty to Art! Vancouver, the art fair taking place May 26-29 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.