This series of photographs is a reflection on my cultural identity, each photo represents Chinese mythological stories or characters. I am Chinese-born and a first-generation immigrant raised in South Africa, and I’ve never felt rooted due to my lack of connection to the lands I was born and raised in. Growing up in transnational environments distanced me from my ethnic identity. Because of the separation and limited understanding, my tie with China exists as a myth, immigrating at a young age disengaged me from connecting to my ethnic culture. South African identity is the same, my ethnicity sets me to become automatically ‘foreign’ in the country I grew up in. These experiences are enhanced with the code-switching between ethnic environments such as home, to the outside environment. Home is where tradition plays and anything beyond that requires a different behavior from me. 

I started to explore the idea of constructed environments. Individuals are heavily influenced by what they surround themselves with, and identities are also affected by that. Choice of objects signifies a person, it carries a certain identity individuals chose for themselves. This series is a way to explore objects and place them in different contexts, construct different identities and learn between material and immaterial. I got permission to access individuals’ homes, these people are randomly selected to highlight the unconscious diversity of causes that influences a person, and I use their furniture, objects, and household items to create a set scene that correlates to a Mythical Chinese story. I insert myself into the environment and identity accumulated by other people, but in the process, I also reconstruct my own identity. The setup only exists within the frame, within 2 hours, after that, it goes back to normal as if it never happened.