1985

While cleaning up the shelves, she located a catalogue from a pile of old magazines. It was called Journey - An Exhibition of Poetry and Etching published in 1985, an art collaboration between two of her friends - PK and Donna. The exhibition had thirty-one poems, each was accompanied by one etching. The cover is not impressive but the calligraphy was from a great Chinese scholar Qian Zhongshu. It just happened that she is reading something about Qian and his wife Yang Jiang, who is also an important writer. Yang has just turned 101 years old.

Seems like a long time ago. What happened in 1985? She tried to line up some facts. Her daughter was two years old. She was thirty-two and had a photo exhibition named Owltoise. They were all black and white still-life shots photographing her daughter's toys. Her best friend Donna had also returned home, having earned her Master of Arts Degree in Etching from France. For the Journey collaboration, Donna had created a lovely piece with a woman playing violin underneath a tree, and this work went with PK's poem The Left-handed Woman.

Donna has always a place in her heart, an intimate presence. In the Owltoise exhibition she made the photograph Donda, which was a combination of two picture cards - Dog and Panda. The new species was secretly created for the friend she loves. The name owltoise was born out of the mouth of her daughter at the age of three. Inspired by the word, she also wrote a poem with the same name and used it as the title of the photo exhibition.