My Mother’s Village (鹿湖坝)
My collaboration with Future Through Memory is a tribute to my ancestors, my family, and the Hakka community. For this tribute, I created a virtual landscape of my mother’s Hakka village of 鹿湖坝 (Lù hú bà) in Guangdong province, China. The village was produced with photogrammetry using archival photos of my last visit to the village in 2015 as part of my journey of learning more about my Hakka ancestry. In my mother’s village, you will explore locations with strong ties to my family history, visiting the family’s ancestral hall and the family tomb located on a hill overlooking the village. In the background, you will hear my mother speaking in Hakka reading from the Zapu 家譜 recounting her family history. I never imagine that six years later I will be visiting my mother’s village in the virtual space especially during a pandemic when travel is limited. I want to thank Lilian for giving me this opportunity to be united with my mother, her village, and the ancestors.