​Ching Ching Cheng   鄭青青

The Lantern Dancer

2024

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During 2020 to 2021 when the pandemic happened due to Covid, I spent lots of time at home with my two young children. My son was in kindergarten, and my daughter was in preschool. It was hard enough already for a kindergartener to be on Zoom for 5 hours every day for virtual school, so I didn’t continue the virtual preschool for my daughter. She played at home every day until she was old enough to attend kindergarten in 2021. During this period of dark time in America, and working from home on Zoom teaching arts, the house and the yards became a big playground for all three of us. We did individual things in different parts of the space inside and outside the home, and also played or did projects together. It was our daily routine. I captured pictures on my phone of random setups from kids playing daily while walking around the house and the yard. I cherish this special year I had with them, watching them play with unlimited time, but at the same time, learning how to live with grief. On the other side of the earth, my dad passed a year before COVID happened, and then my grandpa and my uncle both passed one year after another. Not only grieving the dead but also grieving the end of marriage.

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