"The Price of Happiness" is an on-going project documenting the life of a Cambodian bride in China since October 2014.
The story is one of the thousands of Cambodian women who migrated to China for marriage in hope of raising themselves and their family back home financially by marrying a Chinese man. However, in many cases, the dream never materialized.
Besides documenting the story, I partnered with Winrock International, an NGO working on counter trafficking in persons to exhibit the photos in Cambodia. The goals are, firstly, to humanize the Cambodian woman as well as the Chinese man in a brokered marriage, as the women are always portrayed as victims, and men abusers; secondly, to inform and educate young Cambodian women the real situation of rural China, so they can make an informed decision to migrate or not. A group of 19 photos were shown in universities and pagodas in Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham and Siem Reap in May 2016.
View the full body of work here
The story is one of the thousands of Cambodian women who migrated to China for marriage in hope of raising themselves and their family back home financially by marrying a Chinese man. However, in many cases, the dream never materialized.
Besides documenting the story, I partnered with Winrock International, an NGO working on counter trafficking in persons to exhibit the photos in Cambodia. The goals are, firstly, to humanize the Cambodian woman as well as the Chinese man in a brokered marriage, as the women are always portrayed as victims, and men abusers; secondly, to inform and educate young Cambodian women the real situation of rural China, so they can make an informed decision to migrate or not. A group of 19 photos were shown in universities and pagodas in Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham and Siem Reap in May 2016.
View the full body of work here
at a pagoda in Chamkar Leur District, Kampong Cham, Cambodia
at a pagoda in Chamkar Leur District, Kampong Cham, Cambodia
at Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
at Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
at a pagoda in Chamkar Leur District, Kampong Cham, Cambodia
at Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
at a pagoda in Chamkar Leur District, Kampong Cham, Cambodia