Guanyu Xu: Temporarily Censored Home

Xu was raised in a conservative home in a military-housing complex in Beijing, where expressions of overt non-heteronormative behavior were discouraged. With very limited exposure to the LGBTQ community in China, he understood his sexuality through Western culture, particularly film, television and fashion, which were dominated by representations of white, masculine men, under the overarching notion of the American Dream. Now living in the United States, Xu traveled back to Beijing to activate these installations in secret while his parents were away. And through the recontextualization of images and the revisiting of his own personal history, Xu provides a poignant cross-cultural examination into oppressive systems of power.