海南。洪水村

When culture is a living thing, it is formed of the symbols, meanings, and behaviors of people. It is ever changing. Cultural traits are constantly weakened or enhanced when factors like technology, economics, politics and institutional ideas come into place. Therefore, in an attempt to preserve the unique culture of the Li Minorities, located in Hainan, China, Hongshui Village, it is hard to determine what really represents them.

Traditional costumes, dances or practices? None really are present in today’s context as capitalization and modernization takes place. When people subconsciously forsake their roots, yearning and striving for a better life, some aspects of their cultures are still present in the daily aspects in their lives, where habits, values, and way of thinking were formed and passed down. In this series of work, I wish for my audience to be able to understand and appreciate their way of life through the little details that we often neglect. What story lies behind a jar of preserved raw fish, what a kilogram of latex means to them, how about the ‘beautiful’ scars on their faces?

See it, feel it, understand it, appreciate it.

This work is created and represented in a book form, not only for the public to understand them, but also especially for the Li people to understand themselves better. I wanted it to be my gift for them for allowing me to appreciate their way of living and for them, a form of record of their memories, their past as they move forward, together with the rest of the world.