Goodbye, My Love explores homes that were abandoned in compliance with eminent-domain policy in southwest China. During the Communist Party’s remaking of China, my grandparents’ generation was denied education and “rewarded” with the Correct Lifestyle: they received farmland for the honor and privilege of feeding our new nation. Sixty years later, the same Party tells us that our farming lifestyle is a sign of backwardness. Thus, once again, our way of life and memories are reworked, as we receive the new Correct Lifestyle: a “Moderately Prosperous” existence in shoddily built high-rise buildings.

On a trivial level, this photographic series investigates my personal questions. I used to pass by these homes every day on the way to school. How did these strangers live? What did their lives look like? On a deeper level, the images investigate the residents’ mental worlds and the external influences on them.