Jiawen Li

This project stems from my personal experience: in middle school, we were all required to cut our hair short. At the time, I complied, only later realizing this was a form of discipline disguised as “for your own good/uniform management”—an early intervention into women's bodily autonomy. To explore this issue, I interviewed six Chinese women of my generation, documenting their hesitations, struggles, and resistance in choosing hairstyles within family, school, workplace, and public discourse. Simultaneously, I traced modern and contemporary debates on hair and bodily autonomy, constructing a narrative framework of “discipline-exploration/resistance-rebellion. Visually, I use institutional objects — scissors, combs, red thread — to stage ritualized images; I invoke Joan of Arc as a spiritual metaphor, placing hair + armor side by side, and use fire to mark the subject’s energy and boundaries. Hair and flame co-forge an “armor,” intensifying the tension between soft/hard and submission/resistance. I hope these images give form to refusal and self-determination, turning looking itself into a renewed negotiation of power, identity, and choice.