This project explores the symbolism and personal experience of death in Chinese culture. Death is the state at the end of life. However, due to the unknown nature of death, different cultures have given multiple meanings to the concept and have incorporated a plethora of adjectives and stereotypes into its definition.

In traditional Chinese culture it is often seen as taboo and an invitation to misfortune to discuss or reference death. However, rituals are also performed, and paper money is burned to express the memory of the deceased and to seek the blessing of our ancestors. This sense of ambivalence makes the concept of death both frightening and mysterious.

My project stems from a dream in which my late great-grandmother told me that she was still silently watching over me and protecting me in the other world. So, I began to ask can the deceased communicate with the living through dreams? On the one hand, I think people over-assign a symbolic meaning to death, but if the spirits of the dead do exist and can protect their living loved ones, they can be a psychological comfort to the living.