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I visited Bishan village for the first time in 2007 ...
... and then after that I visited often.
And last month I moved my home from Beijing to Bishan totally to settle down there from this year.
It has a very beautiful agricultural landscape ...
... and very beautiful Huizhou-style architecture there.
That is why it's interesting to set up my base there to start the Bishan Project.
In 2003 I was commissioned by the Venice Biennale to do research about urban villages in Guangzhou.
When I did this research I found the problem of urban villages ...
... actually has a very strong connection with the countryside.
Because agriculture is totally broken in the countryside...
... the farmers could not make a living by agriculture, then they have to move to the city to make a living.
And that is why we have slums in the city.
So that made me interested to do more research about the rural area in China.
There are a lot of Chinese intellectuals doing this kind of rural reconstruction ...
... but most of them are mainly working to develop co-operative projects on an economic level ...
... or on the social organisation level.
The Bishan Project mainly focuses on artistic and cultural events.
After the cultural revolution a lot of people had to leave the countryside and go to the city to make a living.
So a lot of villages are almost empty.
There're only some old people and children left.
So there's not any public life after 1970.
So what we did is try to bring more artistic and cultural events for the villagers...
... trying to activate public life again in the rural society.
So we organise the so-called 'Bishan Harvestival' every year in the village.
We organise an exhibition. We organise a film screening.
We organise a lot of panel discussions about rural reconstruction.
We also collect a lot of historical photos from the village and exhibit these photos in the village.
So when the villagers saw the old photos they got very excited because they could find themselves when they were young.
It's not easy for them to see this kind of old photo because they were collected in the archive of the local government.
To exhibit the Bishan Project is a challenge because it's not like just a simple art piece.
It's a very complicated social activity.
So I think to understand the Bishan Project the best way is to visit Bishan directly.