SCHOLASTIC SHRINE
Refashioned from a traditional Chinese school desk, "Scholastic Shrine" is a commentary on the emptiness and limited knowledge that Chinese students experience within their national education. While China's education aims to enhance students' culture and historical inheritance, its rote learning system creates a divide for the Chinese youth, delivering a shallow understanding of national history and emptying in-depth content. The little wood pieces coming through the desk evoke the residual ashes of incense burning. They contrast the empty shrine that hints the real disconnection between worshiping and true inheriting.
Photography by Alan Rideout