Red Couplets 2011

As a Taiwanese, Chinese New Year holds a significant meaning to me. We paste red couplets in front of our homes during this time and pray for prosperity, health, money, good luck and most of all a wonderful year. Families reunite and spend time together and values, tradition, folklore and stories are passed on to the next generation and new values are exchanged within the family during these gatherings. These reunions is where ideals of the greater China culture is kept alive and molded through the passing of time. The new generation brings in new beliefs which often clashes with the past traditions but I believe this is how culture is formed and preserved. “Five-thousand years” of history, values and culture has been part of me for as long as I can remember. I want to record them (the nature instincts of a photographer) but also wish to portray culture in a realistic form. I believe the past, present and future coexist, interlock and influence each other and form what we perceive as culture. Therefore, I extracted elements such as architecture, vases, and paintings from the past, and embedded them into scenes of the present. In a single image I seek to encompass all the characteristic of the Greater China Culture and this series surrounds this concept. Three subseries were created to fully express my ideals. “Red couplets” the beginning, aspiration and representation of the Greater China Culture. Through manipulation of combining linear and cavalier perspective I created images of Chinese New Year. The second, “Rapeseed Flowers in the spring” where the wisdom of Hui architecture was amplified with the combination of these flowers I hope to portray scenes of beauty that reflect the ideals of Hui architecture. Lastly, concluding with “Cultural Markings” to reflect a manifesto of traditions, family principles, folklore of love six images were created.