During the 2023 Chinese New Year, I went back to China for a reunion with my family after almost four years apart due to Covid-19. Having lived in the United States for ten years, I became Americanized while my parents maintained their Chinese traditions, the good and the bad. The old fashion values they hold onto are incongruent with who I am now. We love each other but we have grown apart. "Breaking the Rock on the Chest" is a narrative series on overcoming the hardships with my family with a sense of soft sarcasm and humor. The action of rock-breaking on the chest is originally a Chinese folk street art of Hard Qigong that dates back to the Yellow Emperor era. I repurposed this art form to make light of the family trauma, and to start the process of healing the estranged relationship of cultural values and generational gaps with my family.

This trip back to China was a relearning about who my family is after years apart. I grew up in a bubble created by my parents of how close and harmonious our family is - it’s almost like the Chinese media. We got into a chaotic dispute on Chinese New Year’s Eve when we gathered at my grandma’s house. The unspoken understanding that we are ultimately connected by bloodline, allowed us to unleash the maximum hurt towards each other. The Chinese New Year celebration continued, we folded our mundane conversations into dumplings cautiously as if nothing had happened, protecting the peaceful awkwardness.

I staged these photos to recreate the scenes in a playful way after I came back to Los Angeles. I wanted to make fun of the family bubble to process this adulthood awakening. By using the jokes to relieve a part of the burden and heaviness inside, some compassion has grown. We love each other in our own ways - the closest strangers tied by a bloodline.