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As a girl raised in a Chinese family, even though the family had long since relocated from its homeland to a country with a climate and a culture in stark contrast to its original ones, Xin Li has like many East Asian girls often been reminded, most of the time just out of habitual kindness, that as a girl, you should behave like one - be tender, be soft.Growing up in a Norwegian society which emphasises equality and feminist power, Xin also went through the rebellious teenage years with scepticism towards this inherited value of softness. But as a grown-up, she started to reassess the East Asian idea of feminine virtue. What does it actually mean to be soft? Is it merely a positive quality of tenderness and care? Is it just restraint, obedience, and sometimes even a burden?
Nevertheless, as a cultural inheritance, or a family gift, through time, the softness carved into her became an important part of her identity. Sometimes she even wonders if being soft is a form of empowerment when it’s a choice instead of an obligation.
With her camera, Xin documented and staged a series of images of East Asian women and still lifes, as a way to visualise and externalise her inward exploration of this duality that exists in softness.
🙋🏻♀️ Xin Li (b. 1994) is a Norwegian-Chinese photographer born and raised in Stord, Norway. She works at the intersection of photojournalism and fine art photography, moving between documentary and staged photography. Li is based in Oslo, where she works as a photographer and journalist.
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Østre Skostredet 10 、 5017 Bergen, Norway, Østre Skostredet 12, 5017 Bergen, Norge, Bergen, Norway
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