"The coast has cradled my family for generations—where land and sea embrace, where waves write our history in salt and struggle."  

Award-winning photographer Li Hao’s ‘The Sea Lies Low’ exhibition recently made waves in Zhuhai, unveiling his striking black-and-white chronicle of Maoming’s Tanka fisherfolk. For seven years, Li lived among these maritime communities, his lens capturing the soul of a fading world where every net cast and tide turned whispers of survival and tradition.  

Li’s childhood memories paint these waters alive—a symphony of creaking boats and sun-bleached docks, where the boat-dwelling Tanka and shorebound villagers moved in rhythm with the sea’s moods. His images freeze moments of gritty beauty: calloused hands mending nets, storm-lit horizons, lifetimes etched in weathered faces.  

Now, this globally celebrated series comes home to Guangdong. Free and open to all, the exhibition feels like a love letter to a heritage the modern world threatens to wash away—a haunting, luminous ode to lives anchored between sea and sky.