Motherland 01: Xiao Jing (2016)

Motherland, is an ongoing project that deals with the migration of peoples. The current series take the form of confessional video portraits of urban dwellers and immigrants in Singapore, a city-state metropolis with one of the highest concentration of people and millionaires on the planet. Singapore attracts immigrants from within and without the Southeast Asian region. In addition, Southeast Asia has one of the highest concentration of ethnic Chinese outside of China. Some have been in this region for generations and may no longer speak the language of their ancestors' country of origin, having been born into a different culture, nation and zeitgeist and speaking a different/hybrid tongue as their native language. Others are first-generation or relatively recent immigrants from China who see Singapore as a seemingly familiar yet still very different country from China, almost like resuscitating the broken synapses of a paralyzed limb. They try to make sense of their existence in the city as they grapple with their sense of displacement, identity, belonging and their notion of building a future in a country which is still coming to terms with their presence. The series also deal with the slippages between documentary and fiction; as a construct and as a phenomenon of reality-based entertainment.