The Making of "My People"
Nicholas Fan was born in Tainan, Taiwan Province, in 1960. In September 1988 he made his first visit to the family ancestral home--Ningho County in Hopeh Province--travelling with his mother. The photographer recalls how that twenty-one day trip gave "this youth from across the Taiwan Strait his first taste of an experience that rocked him to the core.
"I originally went full of curiosity, but I wasn't prepared for the shock that awaited me. It was the first opportunity I ever had to really appreciate the pain of family division that those of my mother's generation went through." Fan describes his mother as feeling that the trip helped her to "pick up the threads of a broken past."
Returning to Taiwan that winter, Fan found he could not shake off the memory, and the following November he again journeyed to Ningho with his mother, this time loaded with film, intending to probe and record his experiences by camera.
That visit lasted sixty days, and the 2,400 slides that Fan brought back with him were whittled down to those in the collection "My People." All the characters that appear in the prints are relatives from the ancestral home, including his maternal grandmother, uncles and aunts, and cousins.
Father Matthis Christian from Austria, who knows Fan well, describes the figures in his pictures as possessing a special kind of beauty: "There is a dignity and truth visible in them all, which gives one a strong feeling of hope." The well known writer Chen Ying-chen describes Fan's photographs as showing that his mother's home village is more than just a name in a story or a place in his dreams.
The following is a selection of those photographs.
Nicholas Fan
．Born 1960 in Taiwan
．Graduated in Fine Arts at the Chinese Culture University in 1982
．Individual exhibition of photography at the American Cultural Center, March 1988
．Individual exhibition, "My People," at the Eslite Vision in Taipei, May 1991.
[Picture Caption]
CHI CANAL
My ancestral home is in the countryside of Ningho County. to the north-east of Tientsin. Ningho has an abundance of waterways including the Chi Canal. the Chaopai River and the Chinchung River. among which the Chi Canal is best known to history. Come early winter. the willows that line its banks are reduced to bare branches. while in the depth of winter the whole canal sometimes becomes a mass of drifting ice.
FELLOW COUNTRYMAN
"Where have you come from?" Meeting this old gentleman from my native ancestral village. and hearing his courteous manner of address. brings to mind scholars of old: a feeling of familiarity. though long separated.
2ND GREAT AUNT
Second great aunt is my maternal grandmother's younger sister. Formerly known as the stubborn "2nd Miss" of the Wang family. she has witnessed great changes in the last half a century.
3RD AUNT AND 3RD UNCLE JAN
Third aunt Jan originally turned up in the village as a beggar from distant Anhwei Province. and was taken under the wing of 3rd Uncle Jan. who had not yet managed to find a wife. Thus she escaped a life of destitution.
A MAN OF THE LAND
People take their character from the land that nurtures them. The youth of the village till the land just like their seniors. Cousin Chuan-wen. an hone st and sincere man of the land. never failed to bashfully greet me on meeting: "Have you eaten yet?"
COUSIN CHUN-HSIA
Girls work the land too. Every time my cousin Chun-hsia works in the fields she carries heavy loads by shoulder without once stopping to catch breath. Country people are very open and hospitable. Once when I was hungry. cousin Chun-hsia put out a bowl of noodles for me containing six eggs.
TEACHER LI
Teacher Li is a colleague of cousin Chuan-sung's. and is one of the few people in the village that does not directly work the land. The village can be a constraining environment for one who has studied and has many ideas. The picture show s Teacher Li in his office contemplating the wintery expanse outside the window. where a dumbbell is by chance placed. A symbolic image perhaps?
"LITTLE ANCESTOR" AND HIS PA
"Little Ancestor" is Chuan-fu's youngest child. a son who was born secretly after the family had already had three daughters. He is also called "Big Joy"--a name that suits him well. for he earns love and affection all round.
CHILDREN OF THE NORTH
The northern child does not fear the cold. and youthful optimism rings through in the thick local accent. In my home region. the children are the ones free of painful memories. but as history shifts its weight on to them. their childhood by degrees passes by. and fate comes to reckon their futures.
FELLOW COUNTRYMAN "Where have you come from?" Meeting this old gentleman from my native ancestral village. and hearing his courteous manner of address. brings to mind scholars of old: a feeling of familiarity. though long separated.
2ND GREAT AUNT Second great aunt is my maternal grandmother's younger sister. Formerly known as the stubborn "2nd Miss" of the Wang family. she has witnessed great changes in the last half a century.
3RD AUNT AND 3RD UNCLE JAN Third aunt Jan originally turned up in the village as a beggar from distant Anhwei Province. and was taken under the wing of 3rd Uncle Jan. who had not yet managed to find a wife. Thus she escaped a life of destitution.
A MAN OF THE LAND People take their character from the land that nurtures them. The youth of the village till the land just like their seniors. Cousin Chuan-wen. an hone st and sincere man of the land. never failed to bashfully greet me on meeting: "Have you eaten yet?".
COUSIN CHUN-HSIA Girls work the land too. Every time my cousin Chun-hsia works in the fields she carries heavy loads by shoulder without once stopping to catch breath. Country people are very open and hospitable. Once when I was hungry. cousin Chun-hsia put out a bowl of noodles for me containing six eggs.
TEACHER LI Teacher Li is a colleague of cousin Chuan-sung's. and is one of the few people in the village that does not directly work the land. The village can be a constraining environment for one who has studied and has many ideas. The picture show s Teacher Li in his office contemplating the wintery expanse outside the window. where a dumbbell is by chance placed. A symbolic image perhaps?
"LITTLE ANCESTOR" AND HIS PA "Little Ancestor" is Chuan-fu's youngest child. a son who was born secretly after the family had already had three daughters. He is also called "Big Joy"--a name that suits him well. for he earns love and affection all round.
CHILDREN OF THE NORTH The northern child does not fear the cold. and youthful optimism rings through in the thick local accent. In my home region. the children are the ones free of painful memories. but as history shifts its weight on to them. their childhood by degrees passes by. and fate comes to reckon their futures.
