Where Can I Wish You Happy?

On 12 May 2008, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale struck my home province of Sichuan, China. In this project shows the possibilities to relate myself to the memory of this earthquake and to shape my own postmemory of it.

On 12 May 2008, at 14:28 Beijing time, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale struck my home province of Sichuan, China, claiming the lives of nearly 70,000 people. At the time, I was at university in another city far from home. Based on my personal states of ‘absence’ ‘distance’ and ‘being an outsider’, my graduation practices show, in several different dimensions, the possibilities for me and for Chinese people in a similar situation to me to relate ourselves to the memory of this earthquake and to shape our own postmemory.

• Part 1: Wish You Happy

  I use several group photographs of people involved in the earthquake, by which who were separated from each other in life and death, as bases for reconstructing the images on the photographs through relatively small textual writings. These group photos become platforms that straddle common experience and privateness, evoking memories and activating imagination.

• Part 2: The 12th May 2008 as a Photographic Encounter

  By capturing and recreating scenes from a video of the day of the earthquake, shot by different cameramen, I want to highlight the ethical issues involved in journalism in extremely specific situations.

• Part 3: Bare Eyes, Photography and Story-telling

  I returned to several earthquake sites and photographed tourists in the act of photographing in these spaces. I also took photographs under the guidance of a local private guide. These photographic acts and results map out how different subjects, such as those who experienced the earthquake, mass media, and self-publishers, disseminated memories of the earthquake and constructed postmemories.

• Part 4: Untitled

  In September 2022, during the Covid-19 prevention and control in China, a new Sichuan earthquake triggers a dilemma about whether citizens can escape from the gates of their neighborhoods. I have placed the images of the back of the staff member who locked the gates to prevent people from escaping and made provocative remarks in this incident on top of the real earthquake ruins. Using this as a bridge, I relate the 2008 earthquake to China today - two earthquakes that ask us questions: should past disasters be forgotten or remembered? For new dilemmas (how do we find our place to respond to it), should we choose to be absent or present? Should one face up to the past and ongoing trauma of others and reach out for help, or ignore and avoid responsibility?

• Most of these projects are covered in more detail in my thesis. Please feel free to read my thesis to find out more: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2221861/2221860