Homeland

[Kyle-Hsueh]

Cave house or Cave dwelling (in Chinese pinyin: YAODONG) is a common dwelling form in the Loess Plateau in north China (mainly in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces). Traditionally, local people just dig caves in a hillside or cliff. Nowadays, an increasing number of local people move in modern Yaodong constructed with bricks or stones, since the traditional earth caves can easily collapse. Old villages like the one (I was born in this village.) in this image have been abandoned. People left the place where they have lived for thousands of years (Truely, our ancestors migrated from east China to this village around 2000 thousand years ago.) My family moved to Xinjiang, which is the westmost province of China, when I was around 10 years old. When I went back to this small empty village in 2011, the feeling was beyond words. Histories, stories, love, hatred, happiness, sadness... everything happened here has gone with wind and dust.

More information on YAODONG, see WIKI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaodong)