Photo provided to China Daily

In 2001, Xing returned to China from abroad to make one of her most renowned series, Disconnexion, in which mobile phones, computers, toys and wires are presented creatively.

The Milan show is an acknowledgment of Xing's willingness to take risks in her artistic work and not shy away from creating pictures that ask awkward questions about how we see and interpret the world through photography.

"Every time, I question how artists make photographs of the world," she says. But most of all, she questions how this world really is.

Xing is also exhibiting her work in Lisbon, at the Museu do Oriente.

"Beijing is my home; nowhere else is good enough," she says. "It's the only city where I can really feel at home. I grew up in Beijing, which represents the starting point of my career. All my struggles started from there, in a very particular historical time.

"Beijing is a very international city, an extremely interesting and stimulating place because of its cultural complexity. It is the most exciting place I know. Well, except perhaps New York. The majority of Chinese artists live in Beijing. My life is very settled here. I don't know if I would ever leave Beijing as I built up my roots there.

"I love New York. It's the global megalopolis par excellence and it is still the city of opportunities for any kind of artist. I came back to Beijing not because I didn't feel comfortable in New York. It was simply a question of love, because of my boyfriend being in Beijing, but sadly we are no longer together."

In New York, Xing first experienced a sense of loneliness, a theme that is very much present in her work, together with a sense of disorientation.

"That frightened me beyond belief," she says.