QingMing is just a few days away. I could not tell you why the seemingly official English translation of this festival is the “Chinese grave sweeping festival”. Yes, they clean up the grave sites of their ancestors, but the real core of the holiday is solidly rooted in paying respect to their ancestors. You choose your word: respect, worship, veneration, honor, …you get the picture.
I will be returning to my wife’s hometown tomorrow and the next day heading to her Dad’s hometown for the celebration of QingMing. The whole Chinese side of the family will be there. Yes, it will be nice to finally meet all the family on my wife’s dad’s side, but I have to be totally honest, I am giddy with the thought of the photo opportunities.
You do not get much better than a cultural holiday. So many aspects of what people believe and how they interpret the world comes out during holidays. Though you are just used to it, pick any holiday and any people, even Christmas for Americans…you can observe belief of individual families, cultural norms, history, and what parts of Christmas we find important enough to pass on to children.
The last QingMing I was able to take part in was QingMing 2007 in a Dong village in China. Photographically, I am very excited about this one. Not only am I family this time (though still far from an insider), but I had some mysterious issues with my color during the last QingMing Jie (oh…sorry, the Chinese for ‘festival’ slipped out there).
Not that it was anything about QingMing itself that messed with my color and not that I expect any such issues this time, but I still think about that day’s issue every time I hear the word “QingMing”. Actually, that funky color issue inspired me to play around with the photos some to make them even more “unreal”. It certainly was out of my style, and I would not even claim it was in any way clever, but it is good for the creative juices to try new things, to make it different every once in a while.
So, here are the things I am thinking about to prepare myself for the upcoming festival of photography:
- What do they really believe?
- How sincere is their belief?
- In what ways is this QingMing (among Thai Chinese) similar or different?
- How many generations back do they pay respect?
- How many generations are present?
- Is this being passed on to the next generation?
- Are there other stories going on?
- How much money is actually spent in this festival of veneration?
- …and my main focus: What is the underlying spiritual reality of what is going on?
- How can I capture that “real” reality?
Not that all or any of those questions will be answered, but I want to keep my eyes open for all kinds of stories or angles on this day. I want to get my mind in gear.
