Siyuan Zhao
| Siyuan Zhao | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Zhao's December 2015 booking photograph, later edited and used as the profile image of the Miya persona | |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Occupation | Architecture graduate |
| Known for | 2015 Art Basel Miami Beach stabbing; source image for the Miya profile picture |
Siyuan Zhao is a Chinese national who carried out a stabbing at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2015, an incident that received extensive art-world press coverage. Her police booking photograph was later edited and used as the profile image of the Miya persona, a pseudonymous net-art account that preceded Remilia Corporation.
Art Basel stabbing
On the closing day of Art Basel Miami Beach in early December 2015, Zhao — then 24 years old and reported to be a recent architecture graduate of the University of Oregon living in New York — stabbed a 33-year-old fair visitor in the neck with an X-Acto knife.[1] The victim was not seriously injured. Because the attack took place on the fair floor, some bystanders initially assumed it was a work of performance art.
According to testimony from her psychiatrist, Zhao was experiencing a psychotic episode: she reported hearing voices, believed she needed to protect the fair from a terrorist attack, and singled out the victim under the delusion that the woman was an undercover agent.[2] Charged with attempted murder, Zhao ultimately accepted a plea agreement under which she was deported to China and permanently barred from re-entering the United States.[3]
Use as the Miya profile image
The booking photograph taken after Zhao's arrest circulated online and became a recognizable image in certain corners of internet culture. The Miya persona — a pseudonymous online account active in the years before Remilia's founding — adopted edited versions of the mugshot as its profile picture, altering the image while retaining its recognizable composition.
The reference surfaced again in later commentary on the milieu: the cultural critic Angelicism01 titled an essay "NO MILADY NFTS, NOT NOW: THE RETURN OF 'SIYUAN ZHAO' AS THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING EXTINCT," which was among the texts sampled to generate the wordlist for the Milady, That B.I.T.C.H. derivative collection — an instance of the name's circulation in the discourse rather than any further use of her image.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ Kinsella, Eileen. "Chinese Art Basel Stabber Is Architecture Graduate Living on New York's Upper East Side". Artnet News. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
- ↑ Voon, Claire. "Art Basel Miami Beach Stabber Was Motivated by Irrational Fear of ISIS". Hyperallergic. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
- ↑ Kinsella, Eileen. "Art Basel Miami Stabber Pleads Guilty to Attempted Murder". Artnet News. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Milady, That B.I.T.C.H.". Remilia Wiki. Retrieved July 21, 2026.