Xinling Wang
Profile
- ੈ✩ I do art....‧₊˚
© 2025 Xinling Wang
→ A Dialogue Between Grandpa and Me
Graphic Design
Individual project
4 months, 2023 (in progress)
2D graphic with Photoshop, Illustrator, Midjourney
Peach Blossom Spring is a philosophical dream in the hearts of Chinese literati. Isolated from the outside world, everything within it remains untouched by external influences, which symbolizes a way of life that transcends material existence. I grew up listening to this story, told by my grandpa, a man of letters abandoned by time.
To explore my identity as a Chinese living in the western culture, I drew inspiration from a painting of Peach Blossom Spring on a vase my grandpa once collected. Using digital tools, I reconstructed old photographs of our home, which was demolished ten years ago, the very place where I learned about Chinese culture from him. These photographs were designed into a series of postcards, serving as vessels for transcribing our cross-cultural dialogue.
Through these images, despite the vast Pacific Ocean between us, my grandfather and I find ourselves spiritually sitting face to face in this Peach Blossom Spring, engaged in quiet conversations. In these timeless, placeless dialogues, I slowly document the fragments of my daily struggle with identity.
By sharing our story, I do not intend to provide answers to these complexities. I simply hope to evoke reflection in others who find themselves at similar cultural intersections, prompting them to reconsider their own sense of self.
桃花源是中国文人心中的一个哲学梦，因为与世隔绝，所以桃花源里的东西不会因为外界的影响改变，象征着一种超越物质的生活方式。
而我从小就跟着我的爷爷，一个被时代抛弃的中国文人，听着他讲这个故事长大。为了探索我作为中国人的文化身份，我以我爷爷收藏的一个花瓶上绘制的桃花源场景画为灵感，以数字虚拟的方式重建了我们十年前被拆迁的家的旧照片，我在那里从他那学习了中国文化。
这些照片成为一系列明信片，作为转录我和爷爷之间跨文化对话的媒介。因为这些照片的承载，尽管我和爷爷隔着太平洋，但在精神上我们面对面坐在这片桃花源里，交谈着。在这些超越地点和时间界限的淡淡的对话里，我慢慢记录下属于我关于烦恼自己是谁的每日琐碎的故事。
通过展示我们的故事，我并不想提出任何试图解决问题的答案，我只希望在一个个文化交汇点中唤起更多人对自我身份的反思。
In my conversations with my grandpa, I constantly imagine that the fragmented pieces of my memory symbolize my struggle and reconciliation between two cultures. Thus I started to seek a way to translate these abstract memories into tangible forms. As the creator of this subjective world, the meanings I assign to these memories become evidence of their existence in reality.
To bridge the gap between the past and present, I needed a tool that could transform old photographs of our demolished home within the framework of modern technology, mirroring the way my memories shift under cultural influence. This became my process of constructing my own "Peach Blossom Spring"—a world that reflects my identity.
I turned to AI-generated imagery, feeding the AI model with old photos of our old home taken by my grandpa ten years ago, alongside my own 3D-rendered interpretations infused with Peach Blossom Spring symbolism. Over the course of a month, through multiple iterations and blending of these images, I generated a series of AI-simulated dreamscapes. I then printed these images as postcards, sending them back to my grandpa in China, continuing our daily dialogue. This cyclical process of creation and exchange allows the project to evolve organically, feeding itself like a living memory.
Despite choosing to leave home and study abroad in search of self-discovery, I was, in a way, forced to leave behind the cultural roots that nurtured me, my family, and my grandpa. The asymmetry of cultures often left me caught between striving for personal growth and holding onto my cultural identity. Which parts of my heritage shape who I am, and which ones confine me?
As a minority, I often struggle to find language within mainstream culture that truly encapsulates my experiences. This urgency compels me to develop my own methodologies and frameworks for navigating change. All of this deepened my intimate longing for the place I come from, yet I needed the isolation of cultural displacement to truly see and understand the differences. Standing on this Western land, I look back at my homeland, I started to reach for XR and AI technologies to create a virtual space where I can sit down and reconnect with my grandfather in spirit.
尽管我是为了探索自我做出了背井离乡求学的主动选择，但在某种程度上因为文化的不对称性，我是被迫离开了我深爱的孕育了我的文化土壤，离开了我的家人，离开了陪我长大的爷爷。我在这里努力学习，却经常迷失在努力让自己变得更好，和保持我的文化身份中模糊的边界上。我身上的哪部分是塑造了自我的文化身份，哪些又是限制我的桎梏呢？作为少数族裔，我发现我甚至很难在主流文化中很轻易地找到适合形容我处境和困处的定义，我急切地需要建立自己的方法论和评判体系来帮助我做出改变中的选择。这一切加深了我对我来自的地方亲昵的渴望，但我又需要一个孤立的文化困境让我看清什么是不同。我站在这片西方的土壤看向家乡，我拿起了手机，找到了可以让我依靠的xr和ai技术，通过回忆建立了我可以和爷爷精神上坐下对话的空间。
在和爷爷的对话过程中，我不断想象，我记忆里的一片片的东西或许就代表象征着我在两种文化里挣扎融合的我的自我。我想试图把这些抽象的概念记忆通过一种方式从我的脑海里翻译出来。我是这些主观记忆世界的造世主，我赋予他们的意义使他们成为可以在现实世界存在的证据。而我需要一个可操作的将现实存在的老照片在现代社会制度下转变的工具，来模拟我脑海里的记忆在我接受的文化冲击下转变的过程，来制作一个属于我自己的“桃花源”世界。我开始尝试借助ai想象的力量，根据大数据为我填满想象的世界里的隐形的社会的秩序。我花费一个月的时间，不断给ai制图工具投喂爷爷给我的十年前被拆迁的老家的老照片，和我在3d软件中自己创作的想象中的带有桃花源象征元素的渲染图，经过这两种图片的多次混合和迭代，制作出了一系列桃花源空间效果图。而我又将这些图片当作明信片寄回给在国内的爷爷，继续下一日的对话，使这个项目拥有不断生长，自我哺育的功能。