年味  New Year Taste

Chinese New Year has been a very important festival in China in the past, but now, many young people will not go back to their hometowns during the Spring Festival. The reasons are that there is no internet in the countryside, relatives are nagging, and there are no coffee shops. This project was photographed in January 2020 before the Coronavirus began. At that time, people in my hometown were still preparing New Year's Eve dinner happily. These photographs are my records of the preparation of the New Year's Eve dinner. However, the finished product, or dish, of the New Year's Eve dinner never came to existence, because at that time, the Chinese government began requiring that people not gather together. So my photographs focus on the ingredients and unique tools, which are rarely seen in the larger cities of China.  
I want to show the audience the other side of the Spring Festival. The process of making the dinner is more important for me to show than a reunion dinner itself. Sharing the cultural experience of this process is a good way to introduce Chinese culture to different parts of the world! Sometimes we think that the result is the only important part, but I don't think so, the process is wonderful!