8. Remembering the past, recounting stories
Artists play a fundamental role in bringing to light personal and collective memories of former factory workers.
Another work exhibited in Unfolding: Fabric of Our Lives was the film, Girl in Tall Shoes (2018), by Korean artist Jung Yeondoo. The film portrays the story of a retired Chinese woman who emigrated from Shanghai to Hong Kong in the 1950s to work in the textile industry. She wore high heel shoes to reach the looms. The film focuses on the memories of the former worker, merging factual and fictional narratives. From displacement and extensive working hours to low wages, these memories reveal different yet arduous facets of working routines recurrently silenced and veiled by the glowing statistics of economic growth.