Now and Then is a long-term documentary project on Asian American diaspora in Los Angeles along with my own struggles with cultural belonging, isolation, and memories in search of space between traditional Chinese and American identities.

The project started in 2019 and then the pandemic hit, I was not allowed to travel back to China for three years due to the Chinese international travel policy. Most of the time I felt stuck in America, other times I felt a sense of freedom. Having spent nearly a decade in the united states, I find myself becoming more Americanized than my traditional Chinese background. I started to photograph the Asian American community to explore those experiences similar to my own.

The project’s narrative is divided into two, Now - a glimpse into the Asian American community in Los Angeles; Then - the immigrant journey experienced through abstract forms in natural and urban settings. I photograph these liminal spaces, weaving through memories, to imply isolation, transition, continuity, and the overlapping of two cultures, the nostalgic complexities of “finding a space in-between”. This project is a poetic essay written to remember who I was, and the process of reconciling my inner juxtaposition to “become” with both cultures.