Rather than using jewellery to promote feminism, Liang Xu use’s it to tell stories, drawing on the lives of great women in history, like the ‘chained women’ and the ‘Fang Siqi’, women who were victims in the grey areas of society. Their bodies and stories, although personal, carry the blood and tears of a history of female persecution.
Project
Jewellery and Metalwork 
Pregnancy
Pregnancy
Embroidery Thread, Wood, Beading Material (2022) The woman who has given up her personality to become a ‘great mother’ because of the stitches that come with the pregnancy on her otherwise beautiful body. The fabric of knitting and stitching is soft, and so is the woman one expects, a 'good woman' who is like a tapestry, gentle and submissive, and not rebellious.
Embroidery Thread, Wood, Beading Material (2022) The woman who has given up her personality to become a ‘great mother’ because of the stitches that come with the pregnancy on her otherwise beautiful body. The fabric of knitting and stitching is soft, and so is the woman one expects, a 'good woman' who is like a tapestry, gentle and submissive, and not rebellious.
Swallow Me
Swallow Me
Oyster, Pearls, Sterling Silver, Beading Materials (2022) Using the oyster as a metaphor for the fear that arises when a woman is sexually assaulted. The desire represented by the oyster is swallowed by the diner leaving only the empty shell, alluding to the emotional damage that occurs when a woman is sexually assaulted. Yet in a patriarchal society, people blame women for being too beautiful and oysters for being too tasty.
Oyster, Pearls, Sterling Silver, Beading Materials (2022) Using the oyster as a metaphor for the fear that arises when a woman is sexually assaulted. The desire represented by the oyster is swallowed by the diner leaving only the empty shell, alluding to the emotional damage that occurs when a woman is sexually assaulted. Yet in a patriarchal society, people blame women for being too beautiful and oysters for being too tasty.
Birth Rings
Birth Rings
Copper, Red Embroidery Thread, Wood (2022). This is the opposite of the ‘birth control ring’, which is a hinge around a woman’s neck when her reproductive rights should be her freedom.In the story of “The Chained Woman”, she is not loved or treated as a whole person, but as a chained tool for procreation, chains being the only ‘jewellery’ she possesses.
Copper, Red Embroidery Thread, Wood (2022). This is the opposite of the ‘birth control ring’, which is a hinge around a woman’s neck when her reproductive rights should be her freedom.In the story of “The Chained Woman”, she is not loved or treated as a whole person, but as a chained tool for procreation, chains being the only ‘jewellery’ she possesses.