Wenjing Zheng’s Artist Statement
Qiankeng Village is my Laojia, the “old home.” In China, the old home is the place where your family and previous generations originated. I lived in my old home when I was two years old and only return during traditional Chinese festivals. Sometimes I feel close to Qiankeng Village since my grandparents have lived there for more than 40 years, but other times, I feel alien to the place due to the limited time I have spent there.
My work is an experimental video of my grandparents’ lives in my old home, a rural area where all the residents wake at 6 am and begin raising their gardens and animals. In my mind, I had romanticized the abundance of their lives- cooking delicious food, basking in the sunshine, growing plants, raising ducks, and relaxing. I thought people in the bustling city would never imagine the tranquility of their lives. But it turned out things were not as I assumed. It is a plain life, a cycle of waking up, working, and going to bed. Many scenes of my video show the repetitions of cooking and gardening. I shoot when my grandparents are busy dealing with their mundane duties because I want them to be natural in front of the camera. We do not talk a lot while I am filming, instead, I record our conversations using my phone and add a voiceover to the video later.
This work is also an exploration of my personal journey back to my old home. I split my time in half: Each week I traveled from my current home to my old home and spent three days there. Using different modes of transportation, such as cars, buses, and motorcycles, I noticed the trivial beauties that I never noticed before. For example, when I was riding a motorcycle, I smelled the fragrance of various plants and heard the sounds of wind. When I was on a bus, I saw farmers leading their cattle, watering their crops, and chatting with each other. I went to the market, documenting my grandmother’s bargaining with the merchant. I went to the downtown area, experiencing the lively sincerity which I seldom noticed in the city. I saw the old merchant of a soy store happily giving more soy to customers who compliment his soy, with no additional charge. The children playing in the public park are delightedly sharing their stories with strangers. I also spent days walking on my grandparents’ farmland in order to identify each plant, see how they grow, and understand how much effort my grandparents exert on them.
The process of making this work has given me different versions of my hometown, and a look into the reality of my grandparents’ lives. We often focus on the differences in our lives, and even exaggerate these differences, but in making this work I have found that all lives share some similarities.