Family Farewell Emotions

UX designer at BBC, based in London, UK

Family Farewell Emotions: Reflections on How Confucianism Influences the Introverted Expression of Emotions in China

Graphic Design, Book Art
Final Major Project, MAGMD, UAL
Jul, 2021-Dec, 2021

Intro

Living in China, where traditional Confucianism influences social rituals, as a native, I can still feel the constraints caused by this ideology, especially with regard to the emotions of acknowledging and presenting oneself. Under such an influence, psychological burdens and pressure are increased. Even in the crucial moments of parting from loved ones, many people are still unable to express their true feelings; they do not know how to deal with their sadness or face the reality of loss.

In my project, Family Farewell Emotions, I aim to use the context of the family to initiate intra-family dialogues, inviting the audience to reflect on Confucianism's role in their own lives, which is rarely questioned. By interviewing people who have lived in the Chaoshan region of southern China for a long time, a picture of the intergenerational communication patterns between families in this area can be gradually constructed.

Outcome

The project outcome is a book archive of a series of interviews and dialogues that I have had with my family members, while the topic of the interviews reflected on how Confucianism influences people’s introverted expression of emotions.

The book design offers critical and reflective design material that could stimulate the thinking of a large group of people and invited the readers to see themselves in the material when looking at the conversations and family stories.

Design rationale

This conversation archive includes eight chapters, which are:
One background and introduction chapter, Six family member chapters, and One curator’s chapter.

Design: Wendy Xiuwen Chen
Size: 200x50mm
Pages: 96
Publication: 2021
Language: Chinese and English
Binding: Coptic binding (thread sewn)
Printing: London College of Communication

Initial primary research

Archiving experiment: Wallet emotion archive

Inspired by the Museum of Sentimental Taxonomy website and the Room Archive project, I decided to re-document and re-process the emotional objects I had collected. I moved away from the camera approach towards scanning as it was not affected by the lighting environment and showcases every detail of the objects. In this experiment, I attempted to perceive the place I keep my emotional object, my wallet, as a container. Although now I only use a cardholder, my big wallet contains all the tiny things that make me feel secure and blessed. I am also not usually conveying my emotions to my family, but I keep all the memories and miss in my wallet.

Interviews

I conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 11 people, including three family members that live in the Chaoshan area and people in my social network that live in different places in China.

These conversations became significantly important when moving on to making formatting decisions. After interviewing people, I realised that there are a lot of interesting and unique stories behind people’s farewell moments and people sometimes struggle when expressing their emotions. Even in the crucial moments of parting, many are still unable to express their true feelings; they do not know how to deal with their sadness or how to face the reality of loss. Some of those interviewed changed their attitudes towards Confucianism after the interviews from being supportive to becoming neutral.

I also found that openness to emotional expression was also related to the personality, cultural background and education of the interviewees, as well as their age. The openness of different people also reflected their approval, criticism or reflection on some of the theories within Confucianism.

"...this is the Confucian idea of trying not to use one's despair and suffering to influence others."

"...even at the time of the wedding, I felt a little embarrassed to shed tears. So, I had to hold back the tears..."

"...It's important to be harmonious and not talk too much. Family and everything lead to prosperity..."

Work-in-progress show review

During our Work-in-Progress show, I produced a series of prototypes by using different ways of bindings techniques, to explore the use of different binding methods to show people’s behaviours and their hidden emotions during their family farewell moments.

Production and testings

Final show & presentation

This project was displayed as a part of the 2021 postgraduate show of London Collage of Communication, University of the Arts London.

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