east eats west eats east us thing grew out of a three month trip to Southwest China and Tibet in 2006. the video stills were taken while travelling and the sections of the poems in plain type were also composed on the road. the italicized parts of the poems were created back at home and the poems were then put together visually. these are travel poems, but they also say something about the times. the wave poems for instance, are made up of reassembled quotes clipped from media articles and newswire stories about China.