A family photo of Tian Kangyi (third right), part of the photo genealogy project by Chen Yuanzhong.[Photo/China Daily]

Photo project pays tribute to migrant families

By Sun Ye In Shenzhen

Shenzhen, a coastal city in southern China, is also one of the nation's biggest migrant cities. Of its 20 million residents, more than half arrived in the last 35 years from elsewhere in the country.

"For every family here, there is a unique story of migration," says Chen Yuanzhong, a photographer with the Shenzhen Evening News.

"The husband may come from the north of China and the wife from somewhere in the south, and their children could be anywhere in the world now."

To capture these family stories, and sift out "characteristics of migrant cities", Chen and his team have taken more than 200 family photos of local households in the last two years. They call the project a "photo genealogy" and plan to take more family photos.

"We want to find out what leads a family to a good, happy life," says Chen.

The 200 families, many of whom volunteered to join the project, come from different parts of China originally, and are from different walks of life.

"But we find that there is something in common for all these Shenzhen families," says Chen.

"First of all, the fighting spirit," he says.

Tian Kangyi, head of a local gift-design company, has had his family photo taken for the project in 2015. His is a typical self-starter's story.

Tian came from rural Jinan, Shandong province, originally. After quitting his "iron-bowl" job at a steel factory in the 1990s he moved to Shenzhen and tried to be a salesman and a waiter but to no avail. He had to live on 5 yuan (80 cents) a day for a while before finally finding his calling. Tian has a thriving business now. He's married with two children and has moved his parents to his new home.

"That's the kind of ubiquitous family value I see them passing on from their generation to the next," says Chen.

Chen himself is a Hakka from Meizhou, Guangdong province. He arrived in the city in 1992 and became a photographer known for documenting the lives of the underclass.

"My family has a tradition of migrating but we always manage to keep the family values intact," says Chen.

They are: Fight for your dreams, and always value harmony within the family because a happy family is the bedrock for everything else.