Two-channel video installation with stereo sound

Night Stroll explores queer desire and cultural identity through the lens of the Chinese love song "Ye Lai Xiang" (Fragrance of the Night). Censored by the Republic of China in the 1940s due to the singer’s complex identity, the song—performed by Li Hsiang-Lan (the stage name of Yoshiko Yamaguchi), whose background spanned multiple cultures—serves as a haunting symbol of repression and longing.

In Night Stroll, an anonymous adolescent cruises through a decaying domestic landscape, evoking a Taiwanese interior intertwined with the unsettling presence of construction sites—pylons, sirens, and scaffolding. The protagonist grapples with a fractured sense of self through a visceral monologue interlacing personal recollections, the song’s lyrics, and language drawn from official U.S. Department of Homeland Security immigration documents, probing different notions of borders and belonging. As the night unfolds, the domestic interior becomes alien, and the unfamiliar transfigures into intimacy.