This project is inspired by a Chinese rock song called 'A piece of Red Cloth' which was produced by the pioneer of Chinese Rock'n'Roll Jian Cui. Apparently, it has indicated the blindness and wonderfulness of love, whereas it also mapped how the Chinese society brainwashing the citizens, and 'forced' us willingly follow the government's commitment towards people. It is a song full of political ideology, and the lyrics of it have fully depicted the confession of deceived one. Even though the deceived person can vaguely aware of the truth, he would choose to ignore any signs. The piece of red cloth refers to the traditional drapery which covers the bride's eyes before the wedding. According to the traditions, if the bride has taken off the red cloth, their marriage will be unfortunate. In this song, the red cloth is a metaphor for the national flag of China and the meaning of the lyrics can be interpreted as if the citizens not following the instructions and ideology which the government has issued, they will be cursed. Although Jian Cui is a male singer, the song itself has shown a pure female gaze. It is true that from the 80s, women have automatically been brainwashed as an appendage of men, but nowadays, women have starting to think about what position or roles they play in society and also in the relationship.
The images talked about my attitude towards both politics and feminism. When I first step into the fine art and photography area, I was terrified to discuss the politics of my country China, because China has always been labeled as cruelly serious about political correctness. Since I was young, I have been indoctrinated to never talk about any political views anytime and anywhere. No freedom of political speech, I have grown up silent and tried very hard to avoid any political signs in my work. In the meantime, I found that the silence in politics has affected the status of women in China as well. We were been told that there is a supreme masculine authority above us. Once this ideology has deep-seated, women gradually give up on power struggles and affirm that patriarchy is beneficial to them. Nowadays, we can still see some women are proud of the female reproductive competition, criticize the nature body figure and appearance, and believe intelligence and loyalty are worthless. Thus I decide to play around with the conventional forbid in traditional Chinese culture to defiance the dictatorship via my images. Due to the Chinese traditional culture, people are not allowed to have fun or wear something bright near the tomb, let alone taking photographs in front of it. This is considered highly disrespectful, Chinese people believe that they will be cursed if they obey this 'rule'. Ironically, I am good after challenging this conventional forbiddenness. For my final images, I shoot in sharp focus and wide depth of field to accommodate more details and increase the textures. I chose a centurial ancient tomb based in Chengdu, China to be the shooting side. Models were wearing several sets of traditional Chinese costumes, and frolicking around the tomb. The body language of the models is quite interesting and produced a kind of intimacy towards the audience, meanwhile makes the images more narrative as I wish. By creating a bright and breeziest atmosphere instead of a creepy or dark one successfully shows a conflict impression about the ancient tomb. Also, I highlighted the high contrast colour especially vermilion to respond to my inspiration for this project: A Piece of Red Cloth, as well as to reveal the authority that the colour red is standing for.