ANNA
BORn
London
year of birth
1988
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This was one of my mum’s first proper film cameras, it’s a colour camera. We took some of our first family pictures on this, that’s why she likes to keep it. It’s got a lot of sentimental value to the family and also the fact that it is antique looking makes it more special. We got some of our early family photos on here. This is definitely one of the traditional ways to capture memories from the past and photos of memories will live on, even when we have come and gone.
My mum is a hoarder. I think there is something about Asian families, they love to hoard. She doesn't want to throw stuff out because she would feel it's a waste and this can apply to special offers, she doesn't want to pass it up because she would see that as a waste.
It comes from a feeling of lack and growing up in a very poor family. My mum grew up in the post Chinese cultural revolution era. Little things that we take for granted, like even packaging, leaflets, papers, jars were things that she didn't have. She always sees a value in them and thinks about ways it could be re-used. To me, it's a jam jar, but for her, she’s like, no we’ve got to keep the jam jar!
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這是我媽媽最早擁有的像樣的膠片攝像機中的一個。它是彩色相機。我們用它照了幾張最早的全家福。因此她一直保留著它。對我們家來說，它的情感意義非凡。古董的樣式也很特別。我們家的一些老照片都在上面。這肯定是一種傳統的保存記憶的方式。即便生老病死，充滿記憶的照片會一直留存。
我媽媽也很喜歡收集東西。我覺得這是亞洲家庭的特點，都喜歡囤積東西。她不想丟棄東西，覺得浪費。打折的東西也一樣。 她覺得把它丟了是浪費。
囤積東西是在極度貧困家庭里成長造成的匱乏感。我媽媽是在文革之後長大的。一些我們認為理所當然的小東西，比如包裝，宣傳冊，報紙，罐子都是她原來沒有的。所以她每每覺得它們有用，要想辦法循環利用。對於我來說，這不過是個果醬罐子。但對她，我們得把這個果醬罐子留起來。