The Quest For Meaning

Featuring Youqine Lefèvre Words by Nastasia Khmelnitski

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What is the impact ethnicity, origin, and country of birth might have on an individual? Youqine Lefèvre was adopted when she was several months old by Belgian parents. The decision to research the adoption process was tightly connected to a personal story and to a wider cultural phenomenon of the birth control policy in China that forced families to seek an alternative home for their children. Youqine shares, “I don't remember the exact moment my parents told me I was adopted. I also think that understanding that I was physically different (racially speaking), more because other people constantly reminded me, consciously and unconsciously, made me realize that too”. The main decision behind coming back to China was to learn about families and abandoned children deeply affected by the policy. Several years spent in China working on the project ignited a healing and self-discovering process that led to an understanding of passions and drives on in-depth personal and professional levels. 

Youqine Lefèvre is a Belgian photographer born in China. Youqine graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts (Photography) from the School of Graphic Research in Brussels, Belgium. She gained her Master’s degree in the same field from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent, Belgium. Her project, The Land of Promises, was published as a photo book in 2022 by The Eriskay Connection. In 2023, Youqine is taking part in 3331 Arts Chiyoda residency in Tokyo, where she plans to continue researching the topic of the declining birth rate in East Asia. In this interview, we speak with Youqine about her childhood and interest in the creative field that led to the discovery of photography as a career path. We speak about her projects, The Land of Promises and Far From Home, which took place in China and were part of research that had to do with two pillars: the personal — learning about her roots, and the professional — diving into the culture of the country to understand better China's birth control policy and its effect on the social element. 

‘It was while visiting a Graduation Show at an art school and passing in front of the photography section that I immediately understood what I wanted to do was photography.’

My Story

Hi Youqine, thank you for the chance to discuss your work. How are you doing? Let’s start the conversation by speaking about your passion for photography. What brought you to make this choice of career? 

Hi Nastasia, thank you for your interest in my work and this interview. I always knew I was rather a creative person. As a child, every weekend, I went to what we call The Academy of Fine Arts (where we paint, draw, sculpt, and so on). This allowed me to understand quite quickly that I wasn't good at these different mediums and that I didn't particularly like them. Then, for years, until I was 17, I was convinced that I would become an architect. During my last year of high school, I met several architects who explained me the realities of the profession, and I completely changed my mind. It was while visiting a Graduation Show at an art school and passing in front of the photography section that I immediately understood what I wanted to do was photography. So I started a Bachelor's in Visual Arts in Brussels.

‘I learned a lot of things during these three years, distancing myself from my own story, that the attempt to reconnect with it, my origins, and the quest for meaning can take different paths, not only by looking for my birth family.’

The Land of Promises

The project, The Land of Promises, is closely connected to your personal story of being adopted at the age of eight months by a Belgian family, and also it relates to the cultural phenomenon of the one-child policy in China. When did your parents tell you about adopting you? Do you remember the effect it had on you? 

I don't remember the exact moment my parents told me I was adopted. I also think that understanding that I was physically different (racially speaking), more because other people constantly reminded me, consciously and unconsciously, made me realize that too.

Taking this personal experience to adulthood and deciding to work on a project connected to it, what did you learn in the process during three years of research? 

I learned a lot of things during these three years, distancing myself from my own story, that the attempt to reconnect with it, my origins, and the quest for meaning can take different paths, not only by looking for my birth family. On a more professional level, I learned to like mixing research, texts, archives, and photography to create a work about a broad and complex subject.

‘Having returned to China, particularly to my birth province and to the city where I lived for seven months in the orphanage, photographing these places is part of a process of reappropriation and recovery which I have been deprived of before.’

Memory and Identity

As your work is closely related to your experience, the two main themes you research are memory and its connection to building identity. Being born in China and raised in Belgium, later going back to explore your roots, brings a question about the way a biological insider, yet a person who might be viewed as an outsider in China perceives Chinese people and culture and depicts it in their art making. Could you share your view on this topic? 

Even today, it's still complicated for me to explain what the fact of having returned to China did and continues to do to me. I think that distancing, both through work — starting with my family and personal history and then broaching the larger context of China's birth control policy — and on a personal level — when I was in China, I felt disconnected from my emotions and feelings, which many adoptees have in common when they return to their country of origin — was and remains necessary. Researching the political, social, societal, demographic, cultural, and economic context is part of my search for meaning in what happened to me. Having returned to China, particularly to my birth province and to the city where I lived for seven months in the orphanage, photographing these places is part of a process of reappropriation and recovery which I have been deprived of before. This work also deals with questioning Western stereotypes towards China and its culture, its birth control policy, and questions transracial and international adoption in a political way. Today I can say that I am Chinese and Belgian, not because others have defined me that way but because I feel and assume it. My relationship with China is constantly evolving, and having worked on these subjects for several years has allowed me to put words on feelings and emotions that it was impossible for me to verbalize before.

‘But alongside the moments of shooting, there were a lot of moments simply shared with them, playing, participating in activities with them, and observing them.’

Far From Home

With the project, Far From Home, you explore the lives of children living in foster homes, their day-to-day and the way they deal with emotional hardships. What helped you build a closer connection with them to be able to photograph their lives? What is the story that made the biggest impact on you or the occurrence you witnessed while working on the project?

The duration. I also worked for three years on this project. I went there very regularly, which definitely helped to create a bond. But alongside the moments of shooting, there were a lot of moments simply shared with them, playing, participating in activities with them, and observing them. Today, what still leaves me with strong memories is the reality of having to live with other children of sometimes quite different ages and with whom we do not always get along with and the difficulty that this must represent for them daily. This feeling of isolation felt sometimes at the top of this mountain in Switzerland through the seasons. And the fact of being constantly confronted with departures, whether other children or educators and trainees to whom we have become attached, while we remain in this place for an unknown period of time.

The Voice

You studied towards your Master’s degree in Visual Arts and Photography at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. In what way do classical studies allow a photographer to define their voice and the narratives they want to explore? 

My studies (my Bachelor's, higher education in Switzerland, and Master's in Visual Arts) taught me, above all, to become autonomous while working on a project. To continue to believe, despite the many moments of doubt, of course, in my ideas, to persevere despite the various feedbacks that we can receive and which can sometimes confuse or discourage. To learn to distinguish between all these feedbacks, those we decide to listen to and those with which we distance ourselves. Family and intimacy were already present from my very first projects. As much as from the school and the teachers, I learned a lot from the other students too. Through these different schools, I learned to surround myself with the right people whose opinion counts when I show them my work.

A Sneak Peek

What project/s are you currently working on, and what should we expect next in terms of themes you’re developing? 

I am currently working on a new long-term project. The question of the declining birth rate in East Asia is a subject that interests me enormously, and after China, I’m now interested in Japan, wondering why the number of births continues to decrease since there was no birth control policy and the preference for sons was not as strong as in China for example. I am therefore looking into the reasons, the consequences, and the possible solutions to this problem — if it should be considered a problem — with the desire to deconstruct the preconceived ideas that one may have in the West. I have just finished two months of residency in Tokyo, and I am currently in Kyushu to establish a comparison between the city and a more rural territory.