HOME
A collection, translation, and manifestation of lived/living experiences - finding home.
Through my grandfather’s story as a prisoner of war, I re-visit his migration experience, his family life and my hometown’s history. I shared chapter one of "HOME" with an installation to illustrate what he experienced - the language barrier, the disconnection, the being in-between, the struggle to fit in, the loss of family, and the regret of being far way. Many of these are also what I am going through.
This digital Cornell box is a documentation/re-presentation of a physical installation. My primary goal was to practice using game engine to mock-up the interactive elements in a rendering of a physical project - something cinema 4d can't do.
Here's a demo of the digital experience:
Getting the media to play correctly was the most time-consuming part. The CRT TV media is a media texture/material that is applied on a plane. On the other hand, the projection content was tricky because Unreal could not see the ripped-paper-banner model I imported as a flat surface. It tried to wrap the materials around the complex model details. I ended up downloading a Projector asset from the internet that treats the projector as a light source. The rest of the work was to program the media playback events in Blueprint.
Here are photo documentations of the actual installation:
Background and Inspirations.
What is this about? HOME.
My grandfather was drafted by Kuomingtong (Chinese Nationalist Party) to fight the Chinese Civil War when he was 17. Later got captured by the communist party, and turned to fight in the
Korean War. He then got captured again by the UN. In 1954, he became one of the prisoners of war who defected to Taiwan and given the name “Anti-communist Hero”. The Taiwanese government arranged for him to work in the sugar refinery and provided him housing. In 1969, he married my grandmother, who already had two children, my father and uncle.
The political conflicts and the war’s aftermath continued. He couldn’t go back to his hometown in He
nan (河南), China for a long time. When he finally got to visit, his parents and close family had passed. Henan became a meaningless “home” for him.
But his life in Taiwan, a job, a group of veteran friends, a place to sleep...and then, a wife, two step-sons, and his own son. Was that home for him?
He left his birthplace at a young age to fight in wars, never spent much time with his parents. Did he consider his birthplace a home?
Speaking in a different dialect, did he feel like he belonged?
Did being with my grandmother make up a home for him?
In Taiwan, his final place to settle down, did it feel like home?
Data, materials, research.
What I have:
~7000 words of notes about him from my uncle and father.
6 photos of his younger self
my memory of him
What I can find:
more photos of him and his family.
letters from other veterans
research papers, new articles, books, movies.
keywords: Anti-communist Hero, Korean War, Chinese Civil War, Prisoners of War, Sugar refinery.
What I want to say:
the difficulties in new home
the desire to connect with old home and the disconnection with old home
belongs to neither home and being in-between
Approach.
How do I say what I want to say?
language barrier
Grandpa spoke in a different dialect (河南腔) so we (grandkids) all had a hard time understanding him.
When we called their home he always passed the phone to grandma. (also due to hard of hearing)
But grandma could communicate with him in her own dialect (閩南語) with zero problem.
I have to use English and whitewash myself to communicate and belong.
news media
he would watch political programs with his veteran friends and would yell at the TV together.
he would read newspapers daily and cross off some names with a red pen (angrily). He was still loyal to the political party that retreated to Taiwan decades ago. Sometimes
he would raise his voice talking about the opposing politicians or military officials. (he was a very gentle and polite person)
I rely on the internet news outlet to catch up with people in Taiwan, but still missing a lot of trends.
I also rely on the news media to catch up with the US. It's a lot of work caring about politics and stuff.
loss, regret, being far away
his parents had passed when he finally got to visit his hometown.
in his final years, his veteran friends all passed.
I was unable to see him in his final days.