Liao’s interest in the way relationships are presented and appear to the outside world comes from her experience of growing up in Shanghai and feeling at odds with traditional views. "In China, women are usually expected to get married before the age of 30," she explains, "otherwise, you are considered a leftover woman. People believe that a woman’s happiness is reliant on her marriage to a richer, older man. Growing up, I too was always told that I would need to find a man who is older and reliable. Even though I never looked forward to that type of 'happy marriage', I didn’t think dating a younger man would work out either. It’s only when I started dating Moro that my ideas began to change." Liao began to consider the alternative possibilities for male-female couples, and photography became a way for her to see what would happen when a man and a woman's roles are reversed or shared.