Ongoing Projects

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    Pink Fantasy



    Inspired by the words of feminist scholar Chizuko Ueno, “Being a woman isn’t a gender, it’s a situation,” Pink Fantasy explores the lives and migration stories of East Asian women, especially Chinese women, living in major cities abroad. Despite leaving their familiar environments behind to pursue new possibilities—including economic opportunity, family bonds, and more—they often face hardships that relate both to their origin and to their gender. Their stories are also my stories, which is why I myself am one of the subjects.

    My portrait subjects include seven Chinese women so far, with more participants being added, all born between 1960 and 2000, currently living in New York City. Some of them are my friends; others are women I found on social media who expressed a willingness to share their stories. Each participant represents a specific theme, including but not limited to their family of origin, anxiety related to identity and fertility, career concerns, marital status, and the complexities of intimate relationships. In addition, they reflect differences in gender identity, self-awareness, and cultural belonging. It was clear to me that for them, migration and being in a foreign country heightened these issues.

    I invited each subject into the studio and conducted an in-depth interview before the session. Along with identifiable portraits, I shot body close-ups, usually of their hands, all against a uniformly pink background. I chose the color for two reasons. First, from a social     perspective, pink is closely associated with femininity from birth, permeating visual domains such as film, media, advertising, and products targeted at women. Second, pink is frequently used in commercial and fashion photography to represent female-oriented themes. I myself, as a working professional, have often unconsciously resorted to it too. For this work, I used it quite intentionally, in order to comment on the way it stereotypes female subjects. In the session, I also asked my subjects to choose a fruit that they felt somehow represented themselves. As with pink, fruits are often associated with femininity; women are frequently compared to juicy, sensual fruits in literature, film, and everyday discourse. These metaphors carry strong implications of social discipline and the male gaze.

    The project incorporates symbolic yet open-ended visual elements such as the color pink and various fruits through which I present non-stereotypical images to seek female subjectivity. Pink Fantasy also aims to capture women’s stories, struggles, and internal states, presenting the situation they face under structural social pressures, as well as how East Asian women navigate the complex and layered challenges of living in a foreign environment. At the same time, I plan to develop this project into a long-term series, photographing more women while exploring themes such as female awakening, self-healing, and mutual growth after adversity.

    All images on this site copyright©JOY ISlAND,2025

    New York 2025