Oversea (2009- )
In this series of portraits, I photographed those Chinese students who are about to study abroad. I try to visualize the specialty or the future country of each subject with artifacts and environment he/she is familiar with. Some subjects are volunteers from douban.com.
Since 1980s, the first Chinese students start to take TOEFL tests and study abroad, and today there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese students going abroad to study every year. These students are from various backgrounds, pursuing different degrees, and the reasons why they would like to spend four years or even longer time in a country far away from home are diverse too, yet they have all overcome great difficulties such as language and finance. According to UNESCO, more than 75 percent of Chinese overseas students choose to stay abroad in forms of work or further studies. Similarly, many of my subjects do show interests in staying abroad after receiving their degrees or even becoming immigrants. In this way, this series of photographs also offers a preview of future professors, engineers, businessmen, musician… in their new countries.