As a girl raised in a Chinese family, even though the family had long since relocated from its homeland to a country with a climate and a culture in stark contrast to its original ones, Xin Li has like many East Asian girls often been reminded, most of the time just out of habitual kindness, that as a girl, you should behave like one - be tender, be soft.
Growing up in a Norwegian society which emphasises equality and feminist power, Xin also went through the rebellious teenage years with scepticism towards this inherited value of softness. But as a grown-up, she started to reassess the East Asian idea of feminine virtue. What does it actually mean to be soft? Is it merely a positive quality of tenderness and care? Is it just restraint, obedience, and sometimes even a burden? Nevertheless, as a cultural inheritance, or a family gift, through time, the softness carved into her became an important part of her identity. Sometimes she even wonders if being soft is a form of empowerment when it’s a choice instead of an obligation.
With her camera, Xin documented and staged a series of images of East Asian women and still lifes, as a way to visualise and externalise her inward exploration of this duality that exists in softness.
