Songs That Lost Their Voice recreates a Lunar New Year living room, featuring a TV, headphones, microphone, sofa and festive objects. Visitors are invited to sing along karaoke-style, following subtitles and visuals while wearing headphones. While the music and the participant’s voice are clearly heard through the headphones, the microphone is almost muted, allowing only a faint trace of sound to enter the gallery space.

Rather than focusing solely on the songs, the work reflects on language—particularly Cantonese, and how it is experienced, carried and reshaped in diasporic and politically constrained contexts. Language becomes something spoken softly and held close through everyday rituals, remaining alive yet increasingly vulnerable as its volume, visibility and public presence diminish.

The exhibition explores how sound shapes ritual, identity and belonging across cultures. In this installation, I found myself drawn to the sounds of language, especially Cantonese, carrying the earliest memories of home. Working on this piece allowed me to return to Lunar New Year memories from back home

. . .