yuminghee

Artist Statement

立场 | Standpoint

二零一九年的香港游行运动已经有五个多月了。其实我也不知道发生了什么，只看到了乌央乌央。中国人的新闻里，报纸里，朋友圈里，国旗飘扬；外国人的新闻里，报纸里，Instagram里，力挺香港。作为一个在在加拿大的中国留学生，对着满班的外国面孔，我认为我应该做点什么。

This Hong Kong movement has started for over five months. I know nothing but crowded. Chinese National flag is everywhere in China, “Hong Kong stay strong” is everywhere in the West. As a Chinese and an international student in Canada, I thought I should take this opportunity and do something about it within a class that is filled with Canadian students.

这个作品是一个“1”字型的装置作品，由红色LED灯管和21张的黑白胶卷底片构成。因为在我看来中国只有一个，而香港和台湾包括在这个范围内。我会这样认为和理解是因为我从小生长在中国，我的家人、学校、社会和政府是这样告诉我的。而十四岁独自一人到达加拿大，社会课里我的外国老师和同学说香港是一个国家。第一次我感受到了文化差异所带来的认知不同。而这种认知是很难改变的，因为我们都真心相信我们所学到的是真相。

This installation is in the shape of “1”, formed by a red LED light tube and a black and white film negative with twenty-one images on it. It stands for “One China” because I believe that Hong Kong and Taiwan are part of China, and there is only one China in the world. This is because I was born and raised in China. My family, school, society and the government has been telling me that this is the truth. After coming to Canada all by myself as a fourteen-year-old teenager, my teacher and classmates in Social class told me that Hong Kong is a country by itself. That was the first time where I felt the cognition difference which was caused by cultural differences. We all truly believe what we were taught was the ‘truth’. Therefore, this cognition is very hard to be changed.

我希望这个作品是一封邀请函。它邀请所有人来到它面前仔细的看。不仅是仔细的看这个作品，也是仔细的去看这次运动。它将用它红色的灯光制造一种环境和空间，邀请所有人来探讨自己对于这个敏感话题的想法，交换想法，甚至争吵。

I hope this artwork is an invitation, inviting everyone to look at it carefully and closely. Not only looking at the work but also at this movement. It creates an environment and space by its red light, which invites everyone to talk about what they think of this sensitive issue, to exchange thoughts, and even fight with each other.

其实它也是一封给我自己的邀请函。在此之前我并没有很关心香港的事态，只是被各个社交媒体刷屏着。我利用了这个机会去做了一些调查。在我看来，媒体和新闻非常严重的影响着我们每个人，以及我们每个人价值观的形成。我发现不论是中方媒体和西方媒体所发表的报道都有他们的偏向性。“暴徒”这个词是中方媒体最常用的。这个词本身已经表明了立场，为此次运动定性。而西方媒体的所有照片和文字都阐述着香港警察是如何暴力的打压游行人群的。因此中国人民和西方国家的人民看了这些报道之后就会对于这同一个运动和事件产生不一样的想法。在我看来，是不是从更多的角度看同一件事，就会让我距离那个所谓的“真相”更近一步呢？

It is also an invitation to me. Even though social media went crazy about the situation, I didn’t really care about it. I took this opportunity and did some research. From my understanding, Media and News are two of the most influencing forces for each one of us, and on how we form our values and our understanding of things. I found that both Chinese and Western media had their point of view within their reports. The most frequently used term within the Chinese media was “riots”. And this term itself has already made a standpoint. Western media had all these images and texts which talked about how the Hong Kong police used violence against those protestors. Therefore, Chinese people and people from Western countries would have a different understanding of the exact same movement. “If I look at something from multiple standpoints, would I be closer to the ‘truth’? ”, I wondered.

我利用了这个机会去和我的很多朋友聊天，这其中包括了我仅有的两位香港朋友和一位台湾朋友。有趣的是，尽管他们的生长轨迹非常相似（都生长在香港/台湾并在少年时来到加拿大），他们的回复完全不同。其实这种“不同”就是我真正想要通过“立场”说明的。

I took this opportunity to talk with many of my friends, including my only two Hong Kong friends and one Taiwan friend. And interestingly enough, they had different answers for me, even though they had very similar experiences (where they were all born in Hong Kong / Taiwan and went to Canada during their teenage).

在“立场”里，我表达了我的立场：

I expressed my standpoint within “Standpoint”:

“任何一件是都不可能只有一面。而每一个人都生于不同环境，长于不同经历，所以每个人在任何一件事上都理应有属于自己不同的看法。”

“Nothing can be seen from only one side. Each of us were born in different environments, grew up with different experiences, therefore each of us should have opinions that belong to ourselves. ”

“每个人的声音都值得被尊重和被聆听。那才是言论自由。”

“All of our opinions and voices are worthy to be respected and to be heard. That is what Free Speech should be like. ”

“我们能够看到的信息将会逐渐形成我们对于一件事的看法。”

“Information we have access to can shape our opinion on something.”

“没有对错，只有立场”。

“There is no right or wrong, only different standpoints. ”

“无论结果它都将成为历史被记载。”

“No matter how it ends, it will be remembered as part of the history.”

“作为中国人，我有这个权利和义务表达我对于这次香港运动的看法。”

“As a Mainland Chinese, I have the right and the responsibility to talk about my standpoint on this movement within Hong Kong. ”

“这是我的立场。”

“This is my standpoint.”

NOV-DEC 2019

yuminghee