In 2018, Jeffrey and I collaborated together for the first time. We acklowledged each other's backgrounds and exchanged our ethnic identity experiences. Jeffrey told me about his father’s story. His father was a railroad worker, who would take chances to take photos with his Kodak camera when travelling to cities in Malaysia and Singapore. Through photography, he visited relatives in different cities and took their pictures. The camera captured Jeffery’s family in the diaspora. Jeffrey would considered himself inheriting his father’s expedition and carried the journey forward, exploring the knship and other ethnic groups.
When Jeffrey's father knew that Jeffery was about to visit Taiwan, he showed him some photos of his trip to Hualien City. The picture was taken long ago before he got married. Jeffrey’s father stood in front of the Ami Culture Village, a place once prosperous in the 70s and 80s. I laughed and said it was the classic period when Indigenous folk songs and dances were turned into tourist attractions. When we traveled to Hualien in our free time, we went to visit the desolated Ami Culture Village. Symbolizing the continuation of his father’s exploration of ethnic identity, Jeffrey stood in front of the gate with similar poses and costumes as his father did. We half-jokingly took the picture with the same background and the same angle as in the old photo.