Concept

Qingdao, often known as Tsingtao, is a humid coastal city. While living here, I gradually gained a deeper understanding of the city. I tried to understand and touch it through my creative works and began to think and study the city from a representation of reality and the historical dimension.

The Great Discovery accelerated the creation of the concept of East and West in the modern sense, and established a global colonialism centered on the West. The concept of the East is constantly evolving. The arrival of global integration seems to have eased the differences between East and West created by the colonial past. Qingdao, as a typical oriental city, took part in the process from colonial history to globalization. Stripping away the surface of its cultural prosperity in the modern sense, the grave trail caused by Qingdao's modernization are still evident.

The project researched Qingdao's recent modern history, working with models and collages, and focuses on four kinds of liquids representing the city's attributes, including the sea, rainwater (sewer system), beer, and coffee, to express their relationship to the city. Through these historic liquids, we can transcend time and explore the traces and history of Qingdao from colonial culture to globalization. These images suggest a sense of a long-lost future, absurd but plausible.