Xinlong Lin

As Orientalism became widely disseminated in England and throughout the Western world as a cultural symbol, I began contemplating the tension between my individual experience as a Chinese person and the Western gaze upon the "Chinese-inspired" architecture and streetscapes that emerged from this Orientalist perspective. On one hand, I feel a sense of familiarity and belonging as these cultural markers—such as food, Chinese people, lanterns, and the color red—evoke a certain affinity for me as a Chinese person in a foreign land. On the other hand, these elements are undoubtedly a Western gaze upon China—a fascination with the exotic.

Fragments of Chinese culture have become the "Other" in this foreign land and have simultaneously become a "homeland" for those who are considered as the "Other." They are like random flowers growing along the riverbank. I am intrigued by how the previous generation of Chinese people, during the politically tumultuous and idealizing Western world of the 70s and 80s, sought to find a balance between their individual survival and the gaze of the Western society upon them as "Chinese." Furthermore, I am interested in exploring the present-day lives and spiritual states of that generation of Chinese people, several decades later. Through the visual medium of photography, I aim to capture and depict their daily lives, and in doing so, reflect the evolving spirit of our changing time