Singulars: The final scene

As part of my graduation project, currently titled ‘Generations’, I’ve been working an essay that describes the motives and the subject of the project. At surface level, ‘Generations’ is a documentary photographic serie that portrays the second-generation Dutch Chinese people that contribute to or continue in their family restaurant business. Beneath this layer is a story that tells why the younger generation works in the business. It’s because we are family.

Digging even deeper, and you’ll find that my true motive is to tell my own personal story. I grew up in our own Chinese restaurant. I’ve spent sixteen wonderful years of my life in here. Last Easter was the final day in the restaurant as the new owners would take over the next day. It was a weird day. We would hand over the keys and by midnight, everything would change.

It’s been a year and a half now since that day. I came across an photo that I took on that final day. It was just a snapshot that I quickly took, so I could look back at it later. It’s actually quite a beautiful scene. It’s serene. Everything is as tidy as it ever was. This final scene is worth a ton of memories.