爱、愛
English Translation: Love (simplified), Love (traditional)
36" x 72", Mixed Media - Crayon, Paint, Ink and Digital Media, Jan 2019
This is a collage that explores existing tensions between Hong Kong and China through the simplified versus traditional version of the word ‘love’ in Chinese. Hong Kong uses traditional Chinese, whilst mainland China uses simplified.
In recent years, there has been a constant struggle with power play as both parties seek to gain control over Hong Kong’s land. One aspect that Hong Kong citizens pride themselves over is the use of traditional text and there has been criticism made over the loss of meaning in the structure of the word after being simplified. In particular, the word ‘love’ loses the part which reads ‘heart’.
I broke both versions of the word into fragments and along with the different variations of the word, I jumbled them together and created a repetitive pattern. The repetition and entanglement of the text displays the complicated nature of the never ending struggle between Hong Kong and China.