Portraits of 100 Thirty-Year-Old Neighbors, Que’er Mountain

雀儿山 100 位街坊肖像集

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Liuzhou, Guangxi, China
Digital photographs

2023

In the 1980s, during China’s rapid industrial expansion, the Liuzhou Iron & Steel Plant brought waves of workers to the city. At the foot of Que’er Mountain, dense residential compounds were built to house these families, forming a distinct workers’ community. Rows of brightly painted shed doors became part of this everyday landscape.
I grew up among these doors, recognizing each household through its colors and patterns. Over time, their surfaces absorbed fragments of memory—moments of departure, return, and the quiet rhythms of daily life.
Now, as both the doors and I reach the age of thirty, layers of paint accumulate over their once vivid surfaces, while stains and marks continue to emerge. These traces echo the passage of time within me, inscribed simultaneously on material and body.
In this series, I approach the doors as portraits—carriers of memory, and witnesses to a lived history shaped by migration, industry, and time.

柳州钢铁厂，诞生于20世纪80年代的工业繁荣时期，为了安置迁徒至此的工业移民，成片的家属社区在雀儿山旁拔地而起，而这些彩色的柴房门也相伴而生。自出生以来，这些彩色的门一直陪伴著我。透过色彩和花纹，我能辨认出每一户人家的门。上学时，父亲打开门，骑著自行车载我去学校；放学时，被小朋友欺负的我站在门前悄悄抹眼泪；远行时，我拖著行李箱走过一排排的门，离家的脚步也越来越远。如今，这些“老街坊”已经三十岁了。曾经明艳动人的门上，涂抹了一层又一层的油漆，却也遮不住慢慢长出来的一个个“黄褐斑”，亦如与她们一起年岁渐长的我。一扇扇门，是时与光的载体，锁住了我们再也回不去的空间，和那些留不住的时间。