There’s no place like home, so they say. But does the old proverb still hold true to today’s youth?
New York, a city with one of the largest Chinese populations outside of Asia, has long been home to many Chinese immigrants. The earliest Chinese immigrants to settle in the Big Apple can be traced back to the 1840s and 1850s. Today, the Chinese population accounts for six percent of New York City’s total population, and it’s increasing each year.
The Chinese-American community there has been documented through the lens of photographers such as Bud Glick and Thomas Holton, who have shown the tenacity and grit of New York’s Chinese diaspora. However, these typically only focused on older generations. Photographer Ni Ouyang hopes to present a new perspective on the Chinese-American experience, choosing instead to point her lens at young Chinese girls living in the city. Through her portraits, she offers forth a story of feminine power, individuality, and contemporary Chinese-ness.
俗话说，出门在外，身不由己，这句话依然能与当下年轻人产生共鸣吗？让我们把视线望向纽约，这里是世界除亚洲地区华裔人口最多的城市之一，也是华人移民的主要目的地。最早一批纽约华人移民可追溯至十九世纪四五十年代，如今在经历了近现代三次移民潮之后，当地华人人口已占纽约总人口的百分之六，并呈逐年递增趋势。这不禁让人们思考，华人在纽约的生活是怎样的？那里和故乡究竟有着怎样的不同？
你也许曾在巴德·格里克（Bud Glick）、托马斯·霍尔顿（Thomas Holton）等摄影师的作品中看到旧时纽约华人社区的生活光影，拥挤、辛劳的生活境遇尝试托起下一代人的光明。而中国年轻摄影师欧阳妮（Ni Ouyang）则将镜头对准了在纽约的当代华人女性，她们看上去自信、自我，以动人的神情姿态、生活中的鲜艳色，讲述自己的故事，各有各的风采。
Like many international students who decided to study in New York, Ni hoped to stay after graduating. After completing a degree in photography at the SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology, she took the leap of faith and began working freelance gigs in the city. Over time, she began seeing many parallels between her hometown of Shanghai and New York City, especially in the ways that older architecture are wedged between the newer gleaming skyscrapers. New York, however, is much more culturally diverse, which was the biggest factor in her decision to stay. The longer she stayed though, the fresh eyes through which she saw the city began grew tired, and a feeling of mundanity began to set in, which she felt a need to shake. “This was when I started to really reflect about who I am,” Ni says. “I thought long and hard about where I wanted my career to go, and how I can create work that can find resonance within Western culture.”
与一些留学生想法类似，欧阳妮也想毕业后在国外试试。2017 年从纽约州立大学时装学院摄影专业毕业后，她并没有打算立刻回到家乡上海，而是计划在纽约做一名独立摄影师。在她看来，纽约和上海饶有几分相似，虽然摩天高楼鳞次节比，但也保留了时代的痕迹，比如坐落在曼哈顿西区和布鲁克林的很多褐砂石老式住宅、还有铸铁建筑群等等。而不同的是，纽约是座老牌移民城市，这里的文化和生活要更包容、更多元，这是吸引她想要在纽约发展的主要动力之一。
但随着时间的推移，憧憬和好奇心的日渐消散，当习惯了眼前的一切，生活还是回归到了本质。欧阳妮开始不断反问自己：“我开始去思考，我究竟是谁？我能为我的事业做点什么？应该怎样做才会让作品与当地的文化环境契合？”
Her photo series, Chinese Girls in New York, was conceptualized out of these meditations. Contemporary femininity, age constructs, and Western perceptions of China are just among a few of the issues that she’s long been fascinated by, and she saw the project as a way of examining all of these matters through a broader scope. “As a Chinese woman in New York, I’m also a central subject to my project,” Ni says. “The work taps into my background, personal experiences, and feelings to lend insight into Chinese girls living abroad—visualizing both a struggle to come to terms with their disparate identities and their epiphanies. By showing these girls with their guards down, the project is a response to the cultural stereotypes often perpetuated by Western mainstream media. At the same time, it’s also a reflection on femininity and how multifaceted it can be.”
《中国女孩在纽约（Chinese Girls in New York）》摄影项目并非欧阳妮的一时性起，除了摄影，她平时还将目光聚焦在当代女性、年龄危机、中国发展、大众职业等社会议题上，而该项目也正与这些话题息息相关。她说道：“作为在纽约的中国女孩，我也是我作品中的个体，我希望我的创作能基于时代背景，以我个人的视角和同理心出发，理解拍摄对象们在双重文化背景下的身份认同的困惑和自我意识的觉醒，通过描绘这些身居海外的女孩们真实的、生动的肖像，来回应西方主流媒体对中国和中国女孩的文化刻板印象，也引发观众对于女性意识，和女性多元化问题的关注和思考。”
All of the girls featured in the photo series were born in China and later moved to New York. Their professions range from artists and designers to office workers and students. “They all have their own stories,” Ni says. “I chose to photograph them in locations that have relevance to them, or places that they have an emotional connection to. It could be their homes, studios, or anywhere that they have special memories of. I also considered how the environment could be used to better capture their appearance and personalities. Being that the photos were shot with an empathetic eye and through a female gaze, the project was also a process of self-discovery for myself.”
项目中的女孩们都与欧阳妮有着相似的背景：中国出生，后来移居纽约。而她们的身份则大不相同，有艺术家、设计师、上班族和留学生，大多来自欧阳妮线上和线下的朋友。为了在摄影中呈现故事感，欧阳妮在作品中以丰富的颜色和真实场景来还原人物更为立体的个性，让观众对每一位人物的背后充满好奇。她接着说道：“我通常更倾向于选择对她们来说有亲密属性和特殊情感连结的地点进行拍摄，无论是在家里、工作室，或是唤起回忆的地方。”除此之外，欧阳妮还根据每个女孩的外表、性格，个性和自我认知，从共情和女性凝视的视角进行创作，她认为这些权衡的要素也是她自我探索的过程。
Even though she’s acclimated to life in the States, Ni is prouder than ever of her Chinese roots. This series is largely focused on Chinese femininity, but she also hopes for these images to give Western audiences a renewed perspective on what it means to be Chinese in modern times—regardless of gender. Photography, as she sees it, can serve as an important voice for Asian minorities. “Chinese immigrants in New York are usually thought of as meek, law-abiding people who are just interested in going about their own business,” Ni says. “They’re seen as people who are unconcerned with politics, equality, and so on. But with the uptick in Asian hate crimes and anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S., Chinese communities have rallied together. It’s more important than ever for people to realize that the Asian minorities deserves a voice in Western society. It goes beyond the individual. Having a voice is a powerful tool in the fight for Asian rights.”
身在异国他乡，欧阳妮对于自己的身份没有刻意隐藏，相反，她以身份认同的角度展现新生代华人女性的多元面向、用摄影为自己发声，这在当下显得十分可贵。近年来，华人在西方国家的生活遇到了一些插曲，在刚刚过去的一年，亚裔仇恨事件引发广泛关注。欧阳妮认为亚裔移民在不同时代都会面临不同的问题，当如何去适应和生存不再是话题，积极发声，也格外重要。
欧阳妮说道：“华人群体在纽约，包括移民，留学生，持签证华人，外籍华人，大多数华人群体给人的印象普遍遵纪守法，过好各自的小生活，不乐意参与主流社会投票，平权，发声等等。从疫情期间针对亚裔的种族歧视和仇恨犯罪问题，到 2021 年美国各城市举行的一系列反亚裔暴力集会的游行，我认为这是华人团结意识和民族意识提高的行为，越来越多的华人意识到在西方社会发声，不止是为自己，争取亚裔权利对于整个华人群体都很重要。”
Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Website: www.niouyang.com
Instagram: @rotten_avocadoo
Contributor: Pete Zhang
