Literature

“I grew up on a diet of Disney and Carl’s Jr. Apart from having Chinese dishes at home, the rest of my childhood was spent consuming the West: DK encyclopaedias, McDonald’s drive throughs, and Enid Blyton. I grew up wanting to emulate the fair-skinned lady on TV; it wasn’t just her appearance I was after—her lifestyle inhabited my subconscious. I rejected my Peranakan heritage almost completely in my teenage years—it was too familiar to be desired, and it just wasn’t ‘exotic’ enough. A decade later and here I am, stringing remains together, retrieving forgotten memorabilia from what feels like a past life. Reactivating the photographs of my grandmother’s funeral, I attempt to bridge the time-space gap with that of my own images. Hours spent threading chrysanthemums (a Chinese symbol of loss and healing) developed into a journey of contemplation on a salvaged heritage—imagined or not.”