Crying their hearts out

Hsu Shengyuan's photography works are on display at Beijing's Today Art Museum. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The first girl, who agreed to be in the project, was from Taiwan. Hsu came to her house and listened to her story. As she talked about her good friend, who passed away in a recent car accident, she started to cry.

"I started to click the shutter. She kept on talking and crying," Hsu says. "I couldn't remember how long it took. I just let her cry out as long as she wanted. I did nothing but listen. At that moment, I realized that it's not simply a photo-shooting project. It's about a girl's trust in a stranger and our communication."

Building trust is crucial for the project, Hsu says, and it's not easy for a girl to shed tears in front of a stranger. Before his shoot, Hsu would play music and chat with the girls randomly to create a relaxing atmosphere, from minutes to hours, depending on the volunteers' emotions.

As the girls told their sad stories, the photographer waited for the right moment to take pictures.

"Although shooting weeping girls cost me a lot of time and made me exhausted, at the same time it was a very sacred creation for me," he says.

The only thing that he required the girls to do was to be there without makeup because he wanted to display the most real and natural moment.

Hong Kong singer-actress Tse On-kei is one of the criers photographed. She contacted Hsu after viewing his photo exhibition in Hong Kong. At first, Tse wanted to join the project because she thought it matched well with one of her Mandarin songs, The Name of Tears. But as she learned more about the project, she gained a different perspective.

"Those girls show their most vulnerable sides to strangers. I feel close to them, especially after reading their stories," says Tse, 37.