A photographer from China checked what happens when a man and a woman change gender roles

Photographer Pixy Liao takes stereotypes about relationships and gender roles and passes through the lens of his camera with humor and piquancy, trying to explore the social structure in China in his own way.

(13 photos in total)

Source: Dazed

In 2015 , in an interview , she said: "The concepts of traditional gender roles are still very strong in China. China has become much more open than in the past, and it is now normal for women to work and occupy a high position in society. But feudal thinking, which has been passed down for millennia, still influences how men and women are perceived in Chinese society. As a child, I was always told that you don't have to work too hard, it's much more important to marry a man who can support me, give birth to his children, be a mother and wife."

Pixie Liao was born in Shanghai, but now lives in Brooklyn. She carried her thoughts about the place of men and women in society through the years and as an adult took up the camera to ask these questions. The result was a photo project Experimental Relationship ("Experimental relationship"), in which Pixie Liao reveals in detail her relationship with her boyfriend Moro, with whom she is in a heteronormative couple (heteronormativity is a belief in which heterosexuality is perceived as the only norm of human sexual behavior. — Ed.). Moro is Japanese and five years younger than her. According to Liao, this story still explores issues of love and hate due to the strained relations between their home countries.

The photographer's new exhibition called Lady & Gentleman, which is currently taking place in Malmo, continues this discussion and shows how Pixie Liao weaves her ideas about love, relationships and genders into her work.

"As a woman who grew up in China, I used to think that I could only love someone who is older and more experienced than me, who can become my protector and mentor. Then I met my current boyfriend Moro… I felt the whole concept of the relationship changed to the opposite. I have become a person who has more authority and power. I started experimenting with these relationships and staged different situations for Moro and me to portray them in photographs. My pictures explore alternative possibilities of heterosexual relationships. They raise the question of what is the norm in this relationship. And what happens if a man and a woman change gender roles and the balance of power."

The Lady & Gentleman exhibition will run at the Galleri Vasli Souza Gallery in Malmo until April 22, 2017.