This is an art installation designed to share how migrant families have been impacted due to changes in society, public policies, and the education system. It tells the stories of Partings and Togetherness, Memory and Loss in the phenomenon of first-born children left behind in the countryside and second-borns growing up in China’s cities.
I am a migrant worker’s child who grew up in Shanghai. My older sister was ‘left behind’ in our family’s village in Anhui. Though we are siblings our memories of our childhood – moments we had together and the time we were apart are very different. This project explores the phenomenon of China’s “left behind children” and “migrant workers children” from a unique and very personal angle. I interviewed my sister who was left behind in rural China. Then, I conducted more interviews of other siblings who have similar experiences with us back in my hometown in Anhui. For many years, most of the studies in China have been focused on the issues of “left-behind children” and “migrant worker’s children” separately, to study how the changes of education system, public policies and parenting have impacted them. In my project “Partings and Togetherness, Memories and Loss”, I intend to gather some common and symbolic elements that were found along with my interviews with those siblings. Therefore, to create the atmosphere for the audiences to explore the feelings me and my interviewees expressed. Through the display of various media contents that used to express emotions and feelings, audiences are also encouraged to explore how those two groups of children have been influenced by changes of education system, public policies and parenting, etc.