Early life and education Man Yu was born in
Kowloon City,
Hong Kong, on February 19, 1978. She is the daughter of Pik Luen Li Kan and Tak Fu Fung Ng, who fought in
World War II. The family immigrated to Costa Rica, which Man Yu's father selected because of its lack of army. Man Yu grew up in San José, Costa Rica, and attended primary school at the Catholic Active School. She has spoken about her childhood experiences of
bullying and how this inspired her to explore self-expression through art and writing. However, she discontinued studies in 1999 when she became pregnant at the age of 21. After experiencing a number of life stressors, Man Yu returned to the practice of art. She studied under Nelly Eyo, an Argentine artist, exploring
painting,
pastel, and the human figure. She also was a student of
Julio Escámez for several years, learning about
oil painting in his workshop. This collection was exhibited for the first time in 2016 as a solo exhibition in the 1887 Gallery of the National Center for Culture in Costa Rica. This was Man Yu's first exhibition experience and she opened the exhibition as a Chinese festival with food and
lion dancing.
Traje Humano (Human Suit) Inspired by a childhood painting, Man Yu decided to start a new series of works,
Traje Humano (Human Suit). The multimedia series includes 28 works painted between 2013 and 2019 (added to her original 1987 painting from childhood), two installations, and several multidisciplinary artistic collaborations that involved video, performance, fashion design,
videomapping and
happenings with 33 other artists from various disciplines. Her collaborators included video artists, dancers, musicians, and fashion designers. The exhibit appeared at the
Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, the Municipal Museum of Cartago, the Arts Center of the
Costa Rica Institute of Technology, the Cultural Center of Spain, the
Beijing World Art Museum, and the Women's Museum of Costa Rica. The last work of the Human Suit circuit, executed on August 30, 2019, earned considerable media attention. The performance/happening ''I'm Not This Suit
involved around 100 naked people, as commentary on the stigmas and social conditioning of the burdens ("trajines"'' in spanish) that each person lives with in their human suits. The performance was the first massive public artistic nude in the
Central American region. According to the Latin American art magazine
Hypermedia Magazine, the
Traje Humano project caught the attention of the Costa Rican and Central American art scene, not only because it was the first time that so many artists joined to expand the work of a single living artist and for making of the first massive nude public in the region, but also because it set a precedent in the cultural management of the region by also involving for the first time a wide portfolio of public, private and independent collaborators who supported a project of social and humanistic public exhibition with art. == Awards and recognition ==