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ANCHEN LI 
From Silence to Presence: One Man’s Migration Story
This project focuses on the experience of Zheng, a Chinese asylum seeker who arrived in the UK at the age of nineteen. He came with his parents, bringing nothing but a single suitcase and the family dog. No networks, no resources, and little sense of what lay ahead, their arrival marked the beginning of an uncertain yet determined journey toward rebuilding a life from the ground up. Zheng’s story speaks not only to displacement, but also to quiet resilience, adaptation, and the redefinition of home.

Through a series of portraits, I aim to explore and reflect on his path - how one navigates the emotional and material realities of forced migration, and how identity is reshaped in a new cultural landscape. Having recently relocated from China to the UK myself, I have developed a growing interest in how Asian migrant communities - especially those seeking political asylum - are represented, and how they navigate identity, belonging, and visibility in unfamiliar environments.

Rather than reinforcing stereotypical portrayals of refugees as passive victims, my intention is to present a more complex, dignified, and collaborative narrative. As both photographer and producer, this project challenged me to think critically about the ethics of visual storytelling - seeing the subject not as someone to be captured, but as a co-creator in shaping both narrative and image.

Ultimately, this project became a space for questioning the role and responsibility of the image-maker, and for examining the politics of visibility in stories of migration and displacement






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