Grace Dai was born in California in 2008, grew up in Beijing, and currently studies at Blair Academy in New Jersey. She began photography in middle school and has spent more than five years documenting humanistic elements of traditions and everyday life across communities in China.
Her work has gradually expanded from photography into interviewing, cultural fieldwork, public health, and medical anthropology. Her interests center on understanding people in the context of their communities, and how their experiences shape the way they see culture, health—and one another.
Growing up across numerous cultural contexts, between China, the U.S., and Japan, she has become especially interested in what changes when a story crosses a border, and what shared stories can remain recognizable between people who may initially seem very different.