The Chinese community has a symbiotic relationship with tea dating back through the ages. There’s even a saying, “If you don’t drink tea, you are not Chinese”.
Taken in a 150-year-old Chinese teahouse in Pencheng District, Chengdu, this portfolio reflects the ancient tradition of Chinese teahouses and shows their similarities with modern cafes. The teahouse retains its old world charm and is frequented daily by the older generation. As the new generation heads to Starbucks, these portraits offer a last look at a part of the nation’s culture that is disappearing quickly, mainly due to the country’s focus on economic and modernisation policies.
The current escalation of the Rohingya’s situation has been reported extensively, from the internal aspect in Rakine State, Myanmar right up to the concentration refugee camp in Cox’s Bazaar, where they are housed temporary by the Bangladesh Government. But the Rohingya status has been on going for years.
In Malaysia, although the Malaysian Government has accepted the refugees on humanitarian ground and worked together with The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), most of them end up working as laborers with pittance pay and questionable living conditions. All of the Rohingyas had hope of being relocated to The West, but sadly, only a handful are lucky enough to be able to migrate to start a new life. Majority has ended in their host country for years, still hanging on to the thin thread of their dream, unable to go back to their birthplace, caught in a no man’s land.
The Rabbit Hole depicts the Rohingya’s current dire state in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Like Alice in Wonderland who fell hard into the Rabbit Hole, The Rohingya’s hope of escaping from their hell hole in Myanmar fell flat when the situation in their refugee states are not as green as the grass is seemingly on the other side. The documentation of The Rohingya’s current situation in Myanmar and Bangladesh is well covered, but what happens to the many that has remained as refugees in their temporary host for years? This series depicts the “After The Running” and what happens to them thereafter. To The Stateless Rohingyas, the Rabbit Hole seems forever.