798

When I graduated from technical school a year ago last April, my father took me to the 798 districts in Beijing. The districts had once been vacant old factory buildings. The artist community refurbished the old warehouses and turned them into galleries and coffee shops. Artists from all over the world show there now.

It was a fun day :p       

My name is Iaku Yokozawa

I was born in Gansu province. When I was twelve my father took my brother and I to Hebei to stay with his family--my great grandfather came from Japan in the 1920's for work and his family settled there. My mother stayed behind in Gansu to care for my two younger sisters and Grandmother.


In Hebei, my brother and I would go to school while my father worked. We stayed with my father’s family for three years and four months before moving into an apartment closer to Beijing.


When my brother graduated, he went to trade school three hours south by train in Shandong. My father and I visited him twice. I rarely get a chance to see him these days.