• Cheng’s attire alludes to the experience of misunderstood identity often encountered by Asian Americans. Even though Cheng‘s ancestry is Chinese, Shimomura portrayed him wearing a traditional Japanese men’s jacket called hanten or happi, often worn in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by manual laborers. Under the jacket, however, Cheng wears a Western-style t-shirt and briefs, instead of the customary Japanese undergarments. Information about Martin Cheng’s attire was provided by Professor Karen Mack, Atomi Women’s University, Tokyo.

• Shimomura explained the story behind the equation on the painting in an email: “I used to tell him [Martin Cheng], in Math 2 plus 2 equals four but in art 2 plus 2 must equal 5 or more.”