Ethnographic research

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visual storytelling

Ethnography and Storytelling about a New Chinese City:

A Landscape of Urban Planning,  Propaganda and Promises 


project:

  • Recruited and trained a team of 2 students

  • Collaboratively conducted background research on the Chinese government’s “Xiong’an New District,” a plan to build a new city in a region of Hebei Province, about 100 miles from Beijing

  • Travelled to Hebei to conduct ethnographic research and interviews

  • Reported findings to curators directing the research project

  • Published photo essay on Beijing22, an international art platform

I ask about his reaction to the announcement of the one thousand year plan. “At first I was very happy... but now the laobaixing (“common people”) aren’t so happy, because the policy has yet to be implemented.” For implementation, he uses the word chutai, “appear on the stage;” the dream is waiting in the wings. I’ve long thought of the drama of the state’s urbanization projects, dam projects, and China Dreams as large scale installation drag shows. Revealing through performance that anything we’ve made we can unmake and remake, high camp, kitsch, improvisation, splendor,

now-ness.

- Beijing 22 Making Xiong’an: Remnants Promises One Thousand Years