In 1990, Shen Yuan and her husband Huang Yong Ping left China and resettled in Paris.
Nonetheless, the displacement presented a new host of challenges including cultural confrontation, language barriers, and the pressures of life in a new environment.
Having moved to Paris, Shen Yuan's works often discuss the topics of immigration experience, identity, travel and life.
This experience of isolation was encapsulated in the sole work of the exhibition Perdre sa salive (1994),[6] where nine tongues made of ice were mounted on the walls.
After the ice melt, the knives buried inside appeared—the soft tongue became a dangerous weapon, just as language could cause harm.
I like ice as a material because it has a fragile and easily melting side, but when you hold it in your hand, it is biting.”[8] Visually, it is in the process of constant change and instability.