Photographer Yang Xin takes free “funeral portraits” for elderly people in remote villages, and learns about their attitude to life and death
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A photographer of the elderly
Yang Xin: Granny, are you on your own?
Granny: Yes, yes. My children all left for work.
Yang Xin: Give me a bigger smile, okay? You still have some teeth, right? Open your mouth a bit more and smile.
Granny: No teeth left, young lady.
Yang Xin: (laughs) Now that’s a sweet smile! One, two, three!
The above is a conversation between a photographer and an elderly lady, taking place in a remote rural village somewhere in the mountains of China.
Granny lives by herself. Her children have moved out of the village to seek work and a better future. This dialogue probably conveyed to you the relaxed and happy atmosphere of the photo shoot. In tune with the camera shutter, Granny grins and her smile is instantly frozen in a photo. However, there’s something you should know—the image itself isn’t for her to keep around.
Rather, it’s meant to be a ”funeral portrait (遗照)” to be hung over the coffin when Granny passes away, with copies displayed on the tombstone and in the homes of her descendants afterward.
Our narrator today is the photographer, Yang Xin. She was born in 1985. Over the past four years, Yang and her team have taken the funeral portraits of nearly 3,000 elderly villagers. What’s more, they do it free of charge.
Most of these grandpas and grannies are empty-nesters living in remote mountainous areas. Other than their ID card photo, this funeral portrait is the only picture of themselves many of them will take in their entire lives. This is Yang’s story:
Founded in 2017 by Kou Aizhe, Story FM is one of the most renowned podcast in China. Each episode focuses on ordinary people’s lives and viewpoints, including the difficulties of marginalized people. Through intimate and private interviews, Story FM digs out first-person experiences and lets listeners immerse themselves in another person’s voice and feelings. You can listen to their podcast in Chinese on Ximalaya, Qingting FM, Apple Podcasts, and the 故事FM mini-app on WeChat.
Translated By
Ana Padilla Fornieles is a Spanish translator, writer and creative currently based in Beijing, where she is part of Spittoon International Arts Collective and a regular contributor to The Beijinger. You can find her prose and poetry featured in The Shanghai Literary Review, Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Womanhood, Sledgehammer and more. Her comics and linocut prints have appeared in Shaving in the Dark, F*EMS and Celestite Poetry. Her literary translation work has been published or is forthcoming with a series of publishing houses and magazines, such as Penguin, De Gruyter, Spittoon Magazine and Books from Taiwan.
