Xuehua Luo

Xuehua Luo is a visual communicator from China who lives and works in London and Beijing.

She has had a work placement at Vice China (2019) and has collaborated with BMW – for whom she created an online poster campaign, Zhifubao and Jagermeister.

She is interested in visual communication based on research that explores the relationship between love, family, and politics. She invites viewers to consider how we think about emotions and love in the political context of today’s society. Her approach offers a multifaceted view of intimacy in the language of visual communication.

ALL IN focuses on how we think about love and society in a political context.

When our society favours one group or one gender, it can become a battleground. There is injustice in love. Is love democratic? Is love fair? I analyse romantic love in intimate relationships with criticism and suspicion. My personal experiences have led me to rethink and explore love as a political concept through my discourse and practice.

This project explores the issue of unrecognised and unaccounted for emotional labor in intimate relationships, particularly in a Chinese context. Can we break away from the conventions imposed on couples and families and use Love Is A Political Battleground as a framework to establish a larger collective or community conversation? To expand our understanding of what love is, in order to create a more balanced distribution of unpaid labor between the sexes. What kind of adventure do we get? What are the benefits to society? Can we finally use the political concept of love to build a better world with more equality and kindness? Are we ALL IN?

Love is a political battleground - Emotional Labor

This short film exposes the issue of unfair emotional labor experienced daily in intimate relationships in China, providing evidence of this unrecognised work and the impact it has.

‘From a great subtle point of view, a woman manages the household from the time she gets up to the time she goes to bed. Many times she doesn’t get a break.’

Understanding this – and naming it – is the first step. Talking about it is the second step.

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Video

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1080 x 1920

Love is a political battleground - Documentary

The documentary shows how I have constructed a journey involving interviews with 15 people – all of whom have watched the Love Is A Political Battleground film. My objective was to trigger empathy and open the audience’s minds through watching the film, before conducting the interviews. My documentary captures the interviewees’ own personal stories, thoughts, emotions, reactions, and candid opinions on the topic of emotional labor.

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Video

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1080 x 1920

The ALL IN Zine charts the entire project to date – similar to a journey or a diary – this First Edition brings together research, references, interviews and evidence in one place, serving as a record but also as a conversation starter. Perhaps you’d like to take a look?

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Change Conversation Framework Feminism Participation Printing Self-Publish Social Impact writing

TIKTOK

Instagram

Easy-to-disseminate visual metaphors for emotional labor have been developed as Emoji-like graphics for use on social networks, to be posted alongside the Love Is A Political Battleground interview clips on TikTok and Instagram. My social media accounts are tagged as a community, which I hope will provide a platform for followers and viewers to discuss relevant and ongoing issues around emotional labor.

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Social Media

Behaviour Change Community Feminism Social Impact social media TikTok

Xuehua Luo

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About

Royal College of Art