The handmade book “In the Closet” is a collaborated project with the photographer, Siqi Fan, who is also my girlfriend. The book contains 11 photos and 11 drawings to depict the common living situation of most homosexual couples in modern China.

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Siqi and I lived together in a rented apartment. Both of us were born in conventional families. The project originated from a day when my mom surprisingly came to visit me; we were in a great bustle to cover up all of the clues that could show our “abnormal” relationship. 

The photos represent what my mom saw, and my drawings behind them depict what is the apartment initially looked like. Choosing vellum paper as the printing medium for photos is intentional, not only to show transparency but also to protect my pastel drawings. Doing so represented how LGBTQ people protect and disguise themselves under a pressured and conservative society.