Home Away From Home is a walking simulator about home-making under temporary educational migration. The game emerged from in-depth anthropological research with seven Chinese female international students in London, including the artist, drawing directly from interviews and autoethnographic writing. This deeply personal project acts as a love letter to my university life, inviting players to embody the feeling of building a home in a place you know you will eventually leave, during the most turbulent period of the early twenties. Grounded in sensory ethnography, the game translates embodied experiences into interactive form. As a work of public anthropology, the project also challenges existing stereotypes about Chinese international students by foregrounding our true struggles, joy, memories, and identity. We are not commodities. This is our life.
