Xiahua

(AN EXPERIENTIAL FILM)

"Most of the English names of Chinese kids were given by their kindergarten teachers."
My friends always find this funny when I mention it, but it’s true. We were assigned names before we even understood what it meant to have a self.
And that’s not just the case for Chinese kids as it happens all over the world. In this short film,

I juxtapose AI-generated faces with my own features to explore the idea of naming. What does it mean to have a name — a Chinese name, an English name? Can I exist without a name at all?