A Look at Public Napping in Asia is a collection of photographs taken between 2012 and 2025. Volume 1 explores Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Hainan in China, as well as Hong Kong. Volume 2 revisits Guangzhou, China, and expands to Cheung Chau, Kowloon, and Central, Hong Kong.

When I took the photographs that would become Volume 1, I didn’t realize I was drawn to the idea of public napping. Years later, while combing through hard drives of forgotten images, I discovered I had unknowingly built a collection around this theme. As I began processing the photographs and shaping them into a zine, I was struck by a suffocating sense of shame. During the years I lived in China, I had rarely reviewed my own images. I would shoot endlessly, archive the files, and move on—afraid to confront the possibility that none of them were worth keeping. That fear kept me from understanding my own visual interests until much later.

Another challenge was the obtrusiveness of my camera. Without a silent shutter, every click felt like an intrusion into these quiet, intimate moments. It often seemed impossible to capture stillness without disturbing it.

Six years later, I returned to China and Hong Kong with a mirrorless camera—finally equipped with a silent shutter—and a renewed sense of purpose. My husband and I came back to reconnect with friends and revisit the places that had once felt sacred to us. This time, I walked the streets with clarity and joy, fully aware of what I was seeking and how to find it.

While searching for these moments of rest, I was struck by how deeply human these weary-eyed nappers appeared amid crowds of people absorbed by their phones. In a world increasingly lost to screens, the simple act of closing one’s eyes and folding one’s arms felt like an act of quiet resistance—an affirmation of presence.