Earthbound China
03.02.15

Village Acupuncture

Andrew Stokols

On a bamboo-covered mountaintop the mud-walled houses of Diaotan village are just barely visible through the thick fog that often shrouds this remote hamlet in China’s Zhejiang province. Worn but sturdy earthen walls still enclose...

Earthbound China
12.15.14

A Map of China’s Back-to-the-Land Efforts

Leah Thompson

In our short film “Down to the Countryside,” Sun Yunfan and I follow Ou Ning, an artist and curator who moved from Beijing to the village of...

Earthbound China
01.10.14

Historical Value: A Chinese Town Appraises Its Past

Leah Thompson

The once-grand entrance of the Mingxian Hall is locked and hidden behind splintered boards and overgrown greenery. Wang Shouchang, a sixty-seven-year-old farmer from Bishan village, leads us into the cramped kitchen of the farmhouse next door and...

Moving House: Preserving Huizhou’s Vernacular Architecture

In 1996, art historian Nancy Berliner, working with the Peabody Essex Museum, purchased a vacant Qing dynasty merchant’s house from the Huizhou region of China and, piece by piece, moved it to the United States to be meticulously reconstructed at...

Earthbound China
04.11.13

There Goes the Neighborhood

Sun Yunfan & Leah Thompson

When, in 1996, art historian Nancy Berliner purchased a late Qing dynasty merchants’ house from Huangcun, a village in Anhui province, it was just one ordinary house among thousands like it in the picturesque Huizhou region of China. It took...

Earthbound China
12.17.12

Unlikely Harvest

Leah Thompson

A little over month ago, I found myself traveling to rural Anhui province. Coal+Ice, the documentary photography exhibition I had produced for Asia Society, had been invited...

Earthbound China
05.11.12

From Protester to Village Head

Annie Jieping Zhang

In September 2011, residents of the village of Wukan in Guangdong province began protesting the illegal seizure and sale of their land by local Party cadres. The protestors demanded fair compensation for the land that had been taken, but...

Earthbound China
05.11.12

Wukan Election Photos

Annie Jieping Zhang

While village elections are widespread in China, it’s rare for the Party not to exert pressure over the selection of candidates. When the Guangdong province village of Wukan held elections in February and March 2012, however, they were notably...

Earthbound China
05.10.12

Wukan Struggle

Annie Jieping Zhang

While village elections are widespread in China, it’s rare for the Party not to exert pressure over the selection of candidates. When the Guangdong province village of Wukan held elections in February and March 2012, however, they were notably...

Earthbound China
04.18.12

What Wukan Means

Ou Ning

It began, in the early stages, as a secret mobilization. Then came the protests, marches of ever-larger numbers, direct confrontation, occupations, blockades, anarchy, media exposure, a case of accidental death, the involvement of higher levels...