Family (2019)

What does family mean? It means differently to every individuals. When I was born, China was implementing a family planning policy, and each family could have only one child. Even if China now implements a two-child policy, there would not probably be a huge family like my father’s—a family of nine members.

Such a large family was also a product of the time, reflecting the spirit of the era which is “there is a strength in numbers”. So I wanted to shoot such a set of video works to explore the concept of “family” in my mind. Are siblings who have not seen each other for decades still relatives?

Nine people came from the same native family, but because of family and work reasons at the time, they had to depart away from each other throughout the country. Even if they were separated for decades, and some sisters had not met for forty years, the resemblances of expressions and attitudes to life between them can still be felt in the photos.

The eldest sister, the third sister, and the fourth sister went to the northwestern region of China in the 1950s and 1960s to engage in scientific research under the harsh living conditions. Nowadays they become elderly but still happy. At the same time, because of the different places of life, there are many differences in their lifestyles, so they have different destinies and living habits. From the images, we can see that the fourth sister’s home is in the style of a military family of the last century in the TV series.

The style of the family, from the single sofa to the tablecloth on the coffee table, all reflects their life imprint in their military career, and the third sister lives in the south where the climate is warmer and wetter, so they wear less at home. The bamboo baskets on the hangers also reflect their family lifestyle as a mark of the times.

Although the other sisters and brothers basically live together, there are differences in lifestyle and daily life because of their own development and unique life experiences over the past decades.For example, the sixth sister’s home seems very frugal, and her clothes are all sewn by herself, and the utilization of space in the home is also very efficient. In contrast, the eighth brother’s home has a European style, and their dress is also trendy.