Jia (2005), video still

Jia is a documentation of a personal journey in search of my childhood home in Shanghai. In Summer 2005, I return to Shanghai after thirteen years of residency in the United States. The city of Shanghai has drastically transformed economically, socially, and culturally in the past thirteen years. On the day when I arrive in my childhood neighborhood, the only thing I recognize is the front entrance, and the building of my primary school, which is just across the street. Out side of my neighborhood, I find the noises from busy traffic and from crowded streets of pedestrians and bicycle riders too overwhelming. In the midst of this busy metropolis, I discover home is more a state of mind than its actual physical existence.


In Si Nian (part II), I uncovered parts of the nostalgic mystery of my grandparents. In front of department of architecture at Tong Ji University, I meet with a PhD student of Professor Li and Professor Lou. Professor Li and Professor Lou were students of my grandfather Huang Zou-xin, and Huang Zou-xin was the founder of the department of architecture at Tong Ji University in the late 50s to 60s.

My grandmother Chen Jiu was an English professor at Shang Yi Medical School. Professor Li tells me many anecdotes from her student days at Tong Ji University. She remembers the last time she saw my grandmother was just few days before Culture Revolution had full-blown into a mayhem in the old streets where I use to live.

Si Nian (2005), video still