Documenting the lives of women in contemporary China

Xinger Yang’s intense black-and-white photographs were shown on campus last spring in the Widener Gallery at Austin Arts Center and at the Mather Art Space. Yang ’13, a student of Professor of Fine Arts Pablo Delano, is majoring in studio arts/photography and film studies. A transcript of an interview with her can be found here.

Here is how Yang describes her work: “The photographs in this series focus on various groups of Chinese women who have gone through either physical or psychological distortions in this patriarchal society, due to pressures exerted by a living situation, an ethical code, aesthetic taste, and so forth. These distortions eventually shape their lives and make them who they are. It is important to note that the word “distortion” does not necessarily carry negative connotations, but just expresses a departure from “nature” and a woman’s painful effort to change herself to meet contemporary social standards. My idea is not to condemn or cast light on the darkness in this distortion, but to present and address the beauty and mystery of Chinese women
in their tolerance of all their sufferings. Instead of enriching my images by overloading them with information,
I try to select images that are simple, direct, but do not speak too much.”

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