Shuang Guo: Lantern
The media I use is paper, wire, and a candle. I use these materials to make a lantern myself. Wires are used inside the lantern for support. In China, a red lantern means celebration. With the movie Raise the Red Lantern coming out, another meaning of red lantern became well-known. ....In ancient China, where a nobleman could marry more than one wife, his servant would hang a red lantern outside one of his wives' door, implying that the master would stay here tonight." To me, in this project, it is the pressure from the traditional culture to women. On the side with the butterfly, I drew a girl and peony. Peony is a flower that represents women in traditional Chinese culture... However, the women's image that peony presents in Chinese is not precisely what roses present. Peony is more dynamic and outgoing compared to roses. The butterfly is another metaphor that is common in Western traditional literature and opera. In the opera The Butterfly Lovers, the two main characters die together because their families do not allow that. Their ghosts become two butterflies that fly away after they die. Here butteries mean freedom.

I light this lantern on the rooftop, watch the sunrise, and see the light going weak under the contrast of daylight, and the candlelight is so weak under the morning wind.