For over two years, Chinese tattoo artist Song Jiayin has interviewed her female clients and posted the results online
You can record the fears, hopes, and memories of hundreds to hundreds of women using ink and video.
You can choose from many different designs, such as a sunset, a stylized umbilicus or images of your beloved pets.
In a country with less freedom for female expression, a tattoo can be an effective act of empowerment.
Song told AFP that tattoos can be used to control your body.
China’s Communist Party has long exerted control over women’s bodies through coercive legislation, such as the abandoned one child policy.
President Xi Jinping has made it clear that authorities will not tolerate any corruption.
Feminist activism, limiting non-governmental organizations, arresting high-profile individuals, and suspending accounts via social media.
Popular culture reinforces conservative views that place emphasis on women’s appearances and ability to have children.
Song, who considers himself a feminist, sees her project as a documentary that promotes women’s voices and challenges stereotypes.
She stated, “I want (women) to give people a greater platform to express their feelings,”
Videos of “1,000 Girls” are all in a very simple format. The videos of “1,000 Girls” begin with an icebreaker.
Interviewees share their thoughts about mental health, gender, anxiety, growing older, and death with the rest of us.
– The “Worst” Form of Sexism
Inside Song’s book-filled studio last month, 27-year-old Liao Jingyi was excited to become a part of the project — and receive her first-ever tattoo.
Liao sat down on the tattoo table with her jeans up one side. She braced as the needle moved through her skin. Her leg began to take shape slowly, with the outline of crashing waves, a boulder and a rough outline of rock.
She says she was inspired by a university professor to do this. He advised her to be like an unbroken rock.
While tattoos are not uncommon in China’s more cosmopolitan and wealthier areas, women in particular still face scrutiny over their appearance.
Conservatives are against getting inked, or not following traditional fashions.
The recent suicide of a young woman who became the target of misogynistic online abuse after posting a photo of herself with pink hair spotlighted the intense pressure women can face.
“When a woman doesn’t conform to the norm, she will be attacked and her morality questioned.” It’s sexism, rooted in gender inequality at its worst form,” Lijia Zhang (writer) told AFP.
– Defying disapproval –
One client
A woman in her thirties chose to have tattoos featuring rainbow motifs. Her boyfriend threatened to end their relationship if she said that she would like to ink younger women.
Another woman requested a design that was inspired by her grandparents’ purple hydrangeas.
Song told of the time she was touched and touched by a woman her age, who came in to have her first tattoo.
Song recalls Song asking Song, “I’ve been both a father and a husband.” Can I now be me and get any tattoo I want?
– Broken chain –
Song’s elbow tattoo is strikingly beautiful.
It depicts a broken link in tribute to Xiaohuamei. Last year, she was found in rural China in a shack that had a padlock and a string around her neck.
Although she was initially believed to have been a human trafficker victim of some sort, news of her condition shocked the nation.
Many people have asked for the exact tattoo.
Song said that any woman witnessing all of this, including being forced into having 8 children, would feel great pain.
“I believe that we have struggled too much. “The struggle for women’s rights is too long.
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