Bacani’s story has been extensively covered by the international media. She was among the BBC’s 100 Women in 2015 and also featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2016 list. After all, it’s not every day that a young woman from the rural outback of the Philippines arriving to work as a foreign domestic worker (FDW) in Hong Kong ends up being a globe-trotting photographer. What’s more, Bacani has become a crusader for the community of FDWs, drawing attention to the abuse and discrimination suffered by some of them through her work.

Taking up photography brought about a 180-degree turnaround in her life when the San Francisco-based Filipino photographer Rick Rocamora spotted Bacani’s work on Facebook and helped promote them. In a recent interview to China Daily (see sidebar) Bacani acknowledged that she owed the dream life she was living now entirely to her art. She travels a lot these days, zipping across half the globe, from Makati to Abu Dhabi to the backstreets of New Jersey, on photographic assignments, loving every moment of this newfound freedom.

Could the practice of art make a real difference to people’s lives even if they weren’t as obviously talented and aided by a stroke of luck as Bacani was?

At Para Site’s Quarry Bay art gallery on Aug 28, there was some evidence that art could indeed cross a few hurdles and add meaning to an otherwise often humdrum, and sometimes rather sordid, existence. On that afternoon, Para Site, Hong Kong’s leading institution for promotion of arts, hosted a pop-up exhibition to showcase the images shot by FDWs as part of a series of photography workshops conducted by Lensational Academy. Participating FDWs shared the stories of their daily struggles to find a space to pursue creative interests in the middle of hectic 18-hour work days, watched closely, sometimes, by unsympathetic employers.

The writer Jason Ng came away from the sharing session teary-eyed. Ng has written extensively about the plight of FDWs at the mercy of abusive employers. He also sits on the judging panel of a support group that invites FDWs to design sustainable rehabilitation options once they retire from working in Hong Kong. Still, it came as a pleasant surprise to him to see the far-reaching impact of art and its efficacy in helping Hong Kong’s maids cope with the hardships in their lives.

“I felt the courage and the resolve to push themselves because they finally believed in themselves,” said Ng. “These artists didn’t just take pictures. They were pushing themselves to be spokespeople for themselves and their community.”

Avenues of creativity

Arista Devi, one of the FDWs making a presentation that afternoon, is, in fact, a published writer. She might touch her nose with her index finger, “making a funny face” when she’s posing for a photo, but there is nothing childlike about her resolve to shape up into a fine writer. She has published several stories in her native Bahasa Indonesia and will soon have a book to her name. Her short fiction about a maid who throws herself from the balcony of a high-rise to escape the asphyxiating, soul-killing environment in her employer’s home appears in the Para Site publication Afterwork Readings. The book is a quadrilingual (Chinese, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and English) anthology of writings exploring the ideas of migration and domestic work where contributions by FDWs appear alongside those by reputed writers such as the English poet Edmund Blunden and the Indonesian feminist-novelist NH Dini.

Devi sees the book as a tangible proof of FDWs in Hong Kong having a life beyond minding the employer’s dog and picking up the weekly groceries.

“Some of my Chinese friends who read my story have told me, ‘I’m so proud of you’,” she says. “They promised to care more about human rights issues in the future.”

Devi also played a key role in making a reading group for Indonesian FDWs, started by the KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Yogyakarta, in Victoria Park, gather momentum. Its success seems to have inspired a spin-off reading group of FDWs in Taipei.

More such cheerful stories of FDWs reaching out, trying to leverage the fruits of personal achievement and public recognition into making a difference to others’ lives, were shared by Bonnie Chiu and Sunny Chiu — the young duo running Lensational, a platform to empower women in developing countries through photography. Jem Guanzon, who was in the first batch of students they workshopped, moved to Russia and is now leading her own edition of the program among the FDW community there, with support from the Philippine Embassy in Moscow. Arumy Marzudhy from Indonesia wrote a book, Second Home, after completing eight years as an FDW in Hong Kong. Lensational curated an exhibition in London featuring works by FDWs in Hong Kong last year, called Transit in Doubt, which was a sellout.

FDWs in Hong Kong are not legally allowed to have a second source of income. “The only way we can give them income is by budgeting for a training program they might like to attend, or upgrade their equipment,” informs Bonnie Chiu. Refreshingly enough, most of them want the money they have made from selling a photo to be donated back in their home country, “towards helping even more disadvantaged people than themselves, like those who are unable to afford education”.Deep-seated prejudices

Evidently there is more to the lives of the women who sit out in Hong Kong’s parks and pedestrian walkways on Sunday afternoons, doing each other’s hair and karaoke-ing to recorded music than meets the eye. One or two of them, like Bacani and Guanzon, have gone places since they arrived in Hong Kong. Some are just happy discovering unknown facets of themselves. But is Hong Kong aware of this happy transition?

Freya Chou, one of the prime movers behind Para Site’s project with FDWs, says stereotypical images of Hong Kong maids, perpetuated through soap operas and TV commercials, are too entrenched in people’s minds to disappear in a day. Chou mentions how even after Bacani had appeared in The New York Times she noticed people would slow down while talking to her in English, as they had preconceived notions about her proficiency in the language.

On the flip side of that story is one told by Sunny Chiu about the Indonesian domestic helper Anik Davanika who invited her employer to her exhibition at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. “It takes huge courage to be able to invite a boss,” says Chiu. “She was so moved to see that the boss actually turned up. Such recognition was more valuable than monetary reward.”

Arista Devi says greater sensitivity on the part of the media could go a long way in removing the prejudices held against FDWs since the colonial times. “A lot of media in Hong Kong cover only the bad news about domestic workers and don’t write enough about the positive developments. If the media could strike a balance between putting out the good with the bad, that will help us immensely.”‘Photography saved me’

China Daily catches up with Xyza Bacani, who went from being a foreign domestic worker in Hong Kong to a globe-trotting photographer.

On Para Site’s role in nurturing her talent and giving her a platform …

I’m really proud to be part of Para Site’s show last summer. They connected me with galleries and gave me a home to stay in for two weeks when I was doing a project in Hong Kong.

On being a self-taught photographer and current inspirations…

I feel like I’m still in my formative years. I learn from people who have been in the industry longer than me, from the people I photograph, the places I go to. My inspirations include Susan Maisales, Ed Kashi, Fred Ritchin, Rick Rocamora, Jonathan van Smit, Sim Chi Yin.

On how photography changed her life …

I think photography saved me. It gave me a chance to change my life situation, to explore the world, to learn and be free.

On her role in helping fellow FDWs…

My exhibition in Hong Kong last November, called Behind the Concrete Wall, was about raising awareness about migrant domestic workers’ issues. Then I did a similar show called Modern Slavery. I try to help raise funds for Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge through selling my photos.

On life after appearing in The New York Times…

Getting international recognition did make me more sociable but I still shoot alone. I’m more connected to communities now but I still need my me time. I enjoy my solitude.

On whether practicing art can make a real difference to the lives of FDWs…

It can, provided the artist is using it with social responsibility and consciousness. Art gave a lot of invisible people like me a platform where they might be heard.

On whether Hong Kong media are doing the right thing by FDWs…

I think Hong Kong press are trying to do their best. There are sites or publications that run stories about migrant workers in a sustained way. There are some who are just looking for content to fill their pages for the time being and do not really care what happens afterwards, but that happens elsewhere as well.