Although he was trained in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy in Hong Kong as well as western painting and graphic arts, Chi found his ideal medium in photography. In 1978 he moved to New York Chi began to travel throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Japan, working as a commercial photographer and also pursuing his own fine are photography. Consequently, travel and movement appear as major motifs throughout his work.

During his relatively short period of artistic production, Chi utilized major photographic traditions, such as tourist snapshot, portraiture, tableaux d’histoire and landscape photography. Regardless of the genre he was implementing at the time, Chi’s own image appears within his fine art photography, alternating between impassive and unconcerned. His incorporation of his own image was not so much a form of self-portraiture but rather a questioning of identity and stereotypes.

In addition to his fine art photography, Chi pursued documentary photography as well. Focusing on Keith Haring, Chi developed his renowned subway drawings and murals. Chi also did commercial photography for fashion and lifestyle magazines, including The Soho Weekly News, Vogue, Vogue Italia, L’Uomo Vogue, House and Garden, GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Bacchus, Brutus and Beaux Arts.

In 1979, the same year that he changed his name from Joseph Tseng to Tseng Kwong Chi, he embarked on a decade long project entitled East Meets West (also known as The Expeditionary Series) Chi posed for about 150 images as a self-described “ambiguous ambassador” from the east. His attire, vintage Mao uniform, Velvet-Underground style glasses and a visitor identification badge, coupled with his impassive expression created a complex persona. Photographed at tourist attractions throughout the US, Europe, Puerto Rico, South America and Japan, Chi portrayed the “Everyman tourist”, the stereotypical “inscrutable Asian” and a representation of the “Yellow Peril”. Chi placed himself rigidly in the foreground of the 36x36 inch prints, forcing the viewer to interact with him and in all of the photos the East Meets West series, the shutter release cable is visible.