Brother

Look at me! The monster inside me has already grown this large.

I was born and raised in a period of economic upswing in China. My parents seized the opportunity of the times and became part of the upswing, working hard to gain the capital to invest in the next generation and placing greater hope in me, a better version of them. Being an only child, it was only natural that this status was favored by the family's resources. The environment in which I was immersed and the cognition born from my educational experience told me that I was the main character who carried the expectations, and that the only thing I needed to do was to achieve the mission I had been given, that is, to achieve my own personal success, even surpassing that of my father's generation.

The Brothers series was born from this context, focusing on my perception of China’s “golden period” and the underlying pains accompanying its rapid development. By examining individual experiences alongside China’s trajectory over the past two decades, Brothers seeks to question and reshape influences on both personal and societal levels, such as meritocratic education and an unwavering cultural focus on success. Using self-portraits, staged photographs, and family archives, I incorporate portraits and cultural symbols associated with “success” to introduce the viewer to a “blood brother”—an alter ego who grew up alongside me under the One-Child Policy. As it reconstructs the self, Brothers also deconstructs family relationships from the perspective of the individual, shaped and intensified by the broader context of the era.