Canto Cutie - Volume 2

Photos on page 75-79 are part of the series Snippets from
my Second Home by Nat Loos.
Being half Cantonese and half German, I sometimes felt
awkwardly situated in-between both sides, but I'm slowly
learning to explore and embrace all parts of myself. When
I'm away and miss Hong Kong, I look at these photos and
feel as though I'm transported back into my second home.
About Nat
I'm a university student currently studying Art History
and Asian Studies. I've always been drawn to all things
visual and love to capture moments around me.
Photography is an outlet I use to express myself and it
helps me appreciate the world I live in more.
Photos on page 70-71, 80-81 are work of Cehryl.
These two photos were taken last year when I first moved back
to Hong Kong from the US. In both photos, I see an atmosphere
of uncertainty, and the moving figures in the purple photo of
Sham Shui Po look like sad wandering ghosts. They parallel how
I've felt about Hong Kong when I was away. I was constantly
homesick, and yearned to taste the chaotic, saturated, resilient
spirit of my city. But even when I returned home, the longing
was stuck in me. What was it, then, that I really longed for? Was
it just the memory of an old Hong Kong? Sometimes, I feel like
one of the wandering ghosts in the picture. Looting the past, an
invisible thief.
About Cehryl
I was born and raised in Hong Kong but moved to the US for
college. In the seven years away from home, I invented and
reinvented my identity, that grew further and further away from
who my family understood I was (or wasn't). It's been confusing
and heartbreaking to reconcile the differences between who I
was and who I had become. Growing up, I resented a lot of
societal pressures and traditional Chinese values — I wanted to
be free — but as I got older, I grew more critical and cynical
(thankfully) about the Western notion of identity and
invidualism. This internal conflict will likely never dissolve, so
I'm grateful for music, photography and words, through which I
try to trace my roots, my split ends, and everything else.
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