The Fish Says is a mixed-media stop motion about a poem, a poem of a fish going home that I wrote it for that misty sea in my dream. When I was five, I moved to a Chinese seaside city named Dalian. That was the first time I saw the ocean in real life. The sea of Dalian is not perfect; its sand is not soft, its air smells salty and it is always shrouded by a thick mist. It was charming enough for a young child though.
I left that city in 2008, but from time to time I experience dreams of that city as if the city is calling me to go home. So in this poem, I tried to visualise those surreal dreams that gently tickled my buried memory of Dalian.
The Fish Says (Extract)
A poem by Chen Ma
I kissed the stranding fish
Its scales cut into my lips.
Blood that smells like the ocean
The Fish says: ‘Bring me back into the mist!
Tide rises and falls
I hold the fish in my hands
The boat that is unable to float
Takes me sinking into the mist