Title of Work: One Child
Statement:
150 years ago, 52 Chinese students traveled all the way from the other side of the world to the United States. They were the first group of Chinese students sent here to learn advanced knowledge from Western country, to look for their American Dream. 150 years later today, there were almost 350 thousand Chinese students living and studying in this foreign country, which becomes a major part of international student community in American colleges. However, is it still about American Dream? Or there is something else that leads us here? Or maybe it just gradually becomes an outcome of a rapidly socioeconomic development of an eastern country. All kinds of descriptions about international students on the Internet kind of cloud the way how the public think, so I started trying to draw the outline of this community by stepping into their personal space, activity and life. This path is full of confusion and challenges for most of us; some are trapped in the deep abyss, and some are walking toward the endless challenges.
Before coming to the States, my English teacher asked a question to all of our classmates, “Why do you want to study abroad?” My reason was simply about a pursuit of life in Western world that I have only heard about and learned from the Internet and books. I remember that there were so many different voices in the classroom discussing the facts of studying abroad. Some said their parents wanted them to, and some said they just wanted to avoid the College Entry Exam in China. With all these reasons, students travel all the way from the other side of the earth to this foreign country. And my project is trying to visualize the facts and students’ experience that I have been seeing from my point of view. By photographing the people in Chicago area and some of my old friends in Iowa City, I am trying to build up a visible scene of this small community.
卢卡斯·徐《留学生》
150年前，52位中国留学生远渡重洋来到美国，怀揣着对美国梦的渴望，他们是近几十年来第一批被派往西方国家学习的中国留学生。150年后的今天，有将近35万的中国留学生在全世界各个国家学习生活着，也是美国大学里国际生群体的重要组成部分。然而现在的他们还是追求着当年的那份美国梦吗？亦或是一些新的东西指引着他们来到这里？又或者这一切只是国家经济高速发展的必然结果？所有在网络上对留学生的形容似乎都让大众对他们的概念特别模糊，所以我觉得作为其中一份子，应该用视觉上可观的方式来描绘出这个群体。因此，我踏入到不同的留学生群体之中，观察他们的生活，试图理解他们的内心，再从我自己的角度去解析他们的困惑与迷茫。
在来美国之前，我的托福老师问了我们在座的所有学生一个问题，他说：“你们为什么想要出国留学？” 我的理由很简单，我就是想要亲自去看看电影里、书里和媒体里所描绘的西方世界。我现在都还记得当时同学们给出了各种各样的答案，但是无论如何，这些不同的理由和原因让我们在这个陌生的国度相遇。我的这个项目是想通过摄影媒介以及我个人的视角来展现留学生群体真实的一面。
Biography:
Lucas Xu is a Chinese photographer currently based in Chicago. His works explore different generations in China by using documentary language. Starting the journey of photography by making pictures for people in the streets, Lucas built up his own approach to perceive the world. Lucas Xu is passionate about discovering different cultures from communities and documenting the communities by going deeply into them.
卢卡斯·徐是一名中国摄影师，目前居住在芝加哥。他的作品通过纪实性语言关注了不同代际的中国人。卢卡斯通过为街上的人们拍照开始了他的摄影之旅，他建立了自己的感知世界的方式。卢卡斯热衷于从社区中发现不同的文化，并通过深入了解社区来记录社区。
