ロンフイ・チェン｜Ronghui Chen
Meyer Lemon
作品解説
ロンフイ・チェンは、ある日レストランで「マイヤーレモン」という見慣れないレモンに出会う。調べてみると中国原産であることがわかったが、中国のスーパーで見かけるのはたいていアメリカやニュージーランド産だったはずだ。マイヤーレモンは1908年、アメリカ農務省の植物ハンター、フランク・ニコラス・マイヤーによって中国から持ち帰られたもの。当時、アメリカは植物の多様性を求めて植物学者を東アジアに派遣、マイヤーも4度中国を訪れて2000種以上の植物や種子を収集した。一方でカリフォルニア最大のレモン工場では中国人労働者たちが「中国原産のレモン」を収穫し、排華法によって渡航が制限されていた。たった１個のレモンの背後にも潜む資本主義のグローバリズム。
One day, Ronghui Chen came across an unfamiliar fruit—a Meyer lemon—at a restaurant. Curious, he looked it up and learned that it originally comes from China. Yet, in Chinese supermarkets, Meyer lemons are usually imported from the United States or New Zealand.
The Meyer lemon was introduced to the United States in 1908 by Frank Nicholas Meyer, a plant explorer commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the time, in a bid to expand botanical diversity, the American government dispatched plant collectors to East Asia. Over the course of four expeditions to China, Meyer collected more than 2,000 plant species and seeds. Meanwhile, in California—the site of the largest lemon processing plant in the U.S.—Chinese laborers were harvesting these “lemons of Chinese origin,” even as anti-Chinese exclusion laws severely limited their migration.
This single lemon quietly symbolizes the complex layers of capitalist globalization hidden beneath its surface.
Profile
ロンフイ・チェン｜Ronghui Chen
1989年中国生まれ。イェール大学美術学部写真専攻修士課程修了。杭州とニューヨークを拠点に活動。World Press Photo、BarTur Photo Award、Three Shadows Photography Award、Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Awardなどを受賞。これまでに、「アルル国際写真フェスティバル」、「OCAT」、「ICPミュージアム」、「フォーマット・フェスティバル」、「Photoville」などで作品を発表。代表作《Freezing Land》は「Art in America」「The Guardian」「The New York Times」「FT Magazine」などで特集され、写真集は「Jiazazhi」より刊行され、2020年のAperture財団×Paris Photo First Photobook Award最終候補にノミネートされた。
Born in China in 1989, Ronghui Chen holds an MFA in Photography from the Yale School of Art and currently splits his time between Hangzhou and New York. His work has earned numerous awards, including the World Press Photo Award, the BarTur Photo Award, the Three Shadows Photography Award, and the Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Award. Chen has exhibited at prestigious venues and festivals such as Rencontres d’Arles, OCAT, the International Center of Photography (ICP) Museum, the FORMAT Festival, and Photoville. His acclaimed series Freezing Land has been featured in Art in America, The Guardian, The New York Times, and FT Magazine. The series was also published as a photobook by Jiazazhi, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Aperture Foundation × Paris Photo First Photobook Award.