Words From Dad

  • Dates
    2019 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Topics Archive, Fine Art, Portrait
  • Location Netherlands, Netherlands

Words From Dad provides an experimental exploration of my Dutch-Chinese heritage as it retells the story of my grandfather whom I never knew.

Words From Dad provides an experimental exploration of my Dutch-Chinese heritage. With the use of archival images from my personal family albums, I trace back my mixed roots and retell the life stories of my grandfather whom I never knew.

I am originally from The Netherlands. I am Dutch and a quarter Chinese. My grandfather Tek Suan Chen was born in 1910 in Wenzhou, China. He was a dignitary and the Chen family were judges and landowners there. Everything had been taken away from them, their possessions and their lives. The whole family was killed by the communists during the Mao Revolution. My grandfather was the only one who survived together with his teacher and cousin Bun Chen. He was just 23 years old when he fled, as a student, from Wenzhou to Europe via France to Germany. Due to the political consequences of the war he eventually ended up in The Netherlands, where he met my grandmother and opened the first Chinese restaurant in The Hague. This then became the two biggest and most important things in his life: his family and his restaurant. Although I unfortunately never got to meet and speak with my grandfather - since he passed away before I was born - I have always had a strong interest in the stories my dad told me about him.

The manufacturing and application of analogue photomontage techniques such as collage and weaving is used metaphorically to depict the fragmentation of my family memory, as well as to portray my grandfather's experience of having to adapt to a new (Western) culture, and the multicultural upbringing he gave my dad. Reworking the family portraits, I manually cut and stitch multiple images together, literally intertwining the different cultures and experiences, creating a fusion of their Chinese and Dutch identities. With each fold the images become more abstracted - like the stories that are gradually becoming further removed from the original, each time they are retold and passed on from one generation to the next.

I also explore the ancient Chinese belief of the invisible ‘Red String of Fate’, which encapsulates a universal story of love and destiny. According to the legend, two people connected by the red thread, are destined to meet each other, regardless of place, time, or circumstances. The magical red thread, which is believed to be tied around the ankles, may stretch or tangle, but will never break. The myth is similar to the Western concept of soulmates. I believe the story perfectly embodies and perhaps accounts for my grandparents’ relationship. It seems like fate: how my grandparents met as complete strangers, from different cultural backgrounds, and did not speak the same language, yet somehow ended up together. I suppose the act of love is a language in itself that speaks on a much deeper level. With the use of red string, I create connections within the photographs, making the invisible visible.

Some of the photographs feature unfamiliar faces which still leave me with questions. A few of the prints also have short messages or descriptions with names written on the back of them in various languages that I tried to decipher, but they did not clarify or explain much. I manipulate those images to represent this unknowingness, and the abstruse and ambiguous relationship I have with them, and those shown within them. I blur and obscure the subjects’ identities through partially cutting into them, adding Chinese red seal ink paste, and overlaying them to recreate a kind of double exposure.

© Laura Chen - Image from the Words From Dad photography project
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As told by my dad: "During the German occupation, Chinese were accused of being spies, just like virtually every group of foreigners at that time. It was not just accusations that my father experienced. Even before the war he wrote in all kinds of student magazines to inform his compatriots in the West about the events overseas. In such articles he expressed himself in no uncertain terms about the war between China and Japan. Developments that he followed with suspicion. His nephew Bun Chen had a radio transmitter and receiver in the back of the wholesale business and so they could follow the news closely. These were sufficient reasons for the Dutch police to accuse them of being spies and to detain both of them in prison for two days. In the meantime the wholesale trade was cleared."

© Laura Chen - Image from the Words From Dad photography project
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As told by my dad: "In 1949 my father and his associates opened the first Chinese restaurant in The Hague, called Ling Nam, on number 95 in the Wagenstraat. The status pioneer comes to Tek Suan Chen. The names of the associates; Chen, Yang and Tseng. Ling Nam was a phenomenon in The Hague and beyond from the moment it opened. It was known for quality and cosiness. After the retirement of the three companions, Ling Nam was sold in 1975."

© Laura Chen - Image from the Words From Dad photography project
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When digging through our old family albums, we found two almost identical photographs of my dad and grandfather. The pictures reveal many similarities: they are taken from the exact same position, display the same body language and facial expressions, and show them wearing the same long coat and slicked back hairdo. I mirrored the images so their bodies are facing towards each other. The red string is what connects them.

© Laura Chen - Golden Child
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Golden Child

© Laura Chen - An official document confirming my grandfather's Dutch citizenship.
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An official document confirming my grandfather's Dutch citizenship.

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