Ice Under the Hot Sun
——My summer experiences with loneliness.
Epilogue:
This is my first foray into the graphic memoir.
I drew the most monotonous daily routines during my adolescence, some common childhood memories shared by the last generation of The Only Children in China. We have no siblings, and many of us - especially those from middle class families - grew up indoor 24 by 7, told to focus on studying, which led to serious shortages of social activities. And our parents were too busy working to communicate with us.
But our generation is also Generation Z, who are extremely active on the internet. So the view we can enjoy alone at home goes far beyond our study room windows. We enjoy watching the entire cyber world. We enjoy watching (and we are) lonely teenagers hiding their identities on the internet and sharing their overwhelming emotions and secrets around. Meanwhile, real life is unbearably monotonous. It feels like being burned by ice and fire at the same time, and then those who are burned by the complicated feelings grow up to be ordinary people with normal temperature, and a bit of coldness.
Coincidentally, I have a hobby of making hollow ice cubes, which is a personal eccentricity. When I was drawing this work, I thought these bottle-shaped ice cubes would be perfect to carry the content. Everything is a snapshot of history, both for me personally and for the communities that share some characteristics with me.
