Blue Homage (qīng chū yù lán)

About the work

It is only when memory and cultural lineage intertwine that the scars of bureaucratic control under Maoist China ripple across generations, forging a love at once unyielding and redemptive. "Blue Homage, 2025" is an embodiment of the Chinese idiom “青出于蓝而胜于蓝, qīng chū yú lán ér shèng yú lán” (lit. meaning: "the colour blue is derived from indigo yet is brighter than indigo", fig. meaning: "the student surpasses the master") to honour my grandparents as the “indigo”, whose sacrifices catalysed our family’s upward mobility. The humble ballpoint medium echoes their modesty, and within the vivid blue chiaroscuro, my work memorialises their unwavering love as an anchor that grounds me as the “vivid blue” of my family’s becoming.