‘So close and yet so far away’(2020-Ongoing)
In 2021, due to the National Security Law in Hong Kong, the lives of Hong Kong people have been changed instantly. The National Security Law is an urgent law responding to the entire social movement during 2019-2020, authorized by the Chinese government. Politicians described that China would erode Hong Kong's judicial independence, and its judicial system would look increasingly similar to mainland China's. After the National Security Law, the UK government's offer for settlement for Hong Kong immigrants and refugees, more than 90,000 people started a new life in the UK with the BNO immigration program.
During 2021-2022, based on the Hong Kong immigration issue, my works extended three chapters around the concept of community. In search of the current political situation in Hong Kong through images and texts, which reconstructed the storyline for those unaware of the current socio-political climate in China and Hong Kong.
In search of documents, investigate Hong Kong society through diverse personal identities and geographic locations. 'So close and yet so far away' consists of three chapters. The first chapter, 'So Close and yet', mainly tells about the border and politics leftover from the undeniable Sino-British history, which became the inseparable relationship between the two cities. I tried to capture the portrayal and metaphors of daily life. The image is in a peaceful state, but hidden behind Hong Kong society, it is experiencing a complex tension and political environment.
In the second chapter, 'So far away', I have started to investigate Hong Kong society based on its changes in history, interviewed and documented Hong Kong people moving to the UK, and followed them into a new community in London. The camera followed their faces and actions, the anxious search for a place to live, a job, recording the shifting identity.
In the third chapter, 'Letter to Hong Kong', I focused on the subject of "Seo2 Zug1", a term that protesters call each other throughout the Hong Kong protest movement. Thousands of protesters were arrested during the entire social movement. They may have been in jail, and most have been exiled. The writings fill with their pain, confusion, conflict, and anxiety, but they remind us not to forget what happened in Hong Kong.
The experience of Hong Kongers fleeing to the UK after the clampdown of the Chinese government, especially in the context of their history of colonialism with the UK, is interesting but heartbreaking. Hong Kong is caught between two worlds colliding. An outpost of colonial capital brokerage and trade - once ruled from afar compared to the locality of China's humongous state-capitalist beast, hungry for more power on the world stage as the West declines. There are seemingly no remains, no commemoration, no memory, but colonial history remains influential in this city.