ChenXueling
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CHU HUA YUAN 2025
( Leaving the Garden )
( Leaving the Garden )
Leaving the Garden （dialect: chu hua yuan）explores narratives of growth and identity formation among young women in the Chaoshan region of southern China. I spent a brief summer with my two nieces, aged thirteen and fifteen, documenting their emotional and physical transformations from the beginning of the holiday to the moment just before they advanced to the next stage of schooling.
In Chaoshan culture, women maintain a close relationship with deities through daily rituals and seasonal ceremonies. Rather than focusing on overt actions, the photographs attend to details within the girls’ living environments: offering plates and oil lamps, bamboo sleeping mats unique to the region, rosewood furniture, and patterned curtains. These objects form a quiet spatial narrative, carrying local memory and a distinctly feminine presence.
As the project unfolded, I became increasingly aware of the limited visibility afforded to women within Chaoshan society. In the local dialect, daughters are referred to as zou hai—literally “those who will eventually leave.” Family resources are often directed toward sons, a practice understood by many mothers as tradition rather than neglect. Within this framework, tenderness and conservatism coexist, shaping a form of womanhood that is inherited almost unconsciously.
Leaving the Garden takes its title from the Chaoshan coming-of-age ritual (chu hua yuan), re-examining the lived experiences of women in the region and the influence of local traditions on feminine identity. The work reflects on their position between affection and restraint, tradition and self-awakening, at the threshold of departure.