2010-present, research-based on going and long term project.
30 x 40 inch, inkjet print

My Big Family is a research-based project focus on contemporary Chinese family in relation to the national birth-control Policy. The impulsion for the project was personal due to the loss of my direct family. Started in 2010, I travelled to different regions in China and documented over forty of my extended family members and their everyday lives. Soon, from a personal level, this project broadened its social scope. Due to the Chinese One-Child policy, which started in the 1970s, the size of Chinese families trended dramatically downward, resulting in changes in family structure and family value. The family values were transformed from the one that based on kinship and collectivism to individualism and highly focused on the single child. Other family-related social, cultural, political and economic changes include migration, urbanization, the ageing of society and acceleration of the pace of life. Meanwhile, the lack of sibling relationships for the single child led to the lack of a social reference point and ultimately a lack of a sense of family history. The nuclear family unit is in danger of being broken in terms of its continuity. This project has been documenting these changes and the consequences that the birth-birth-control policy has had on ordinary lives. In 2015, the end to the One-Child Policy was announced by the government. A new era is on the horizon for Chinese families. This project documents the recent family history in China and aims to continue records the changes that are coming.

Video links:
https://vimeo.com/49487169
https://vimeo.com/49447142
https://vimeo.com/36611623