Modu Magazine: A Tale of Urban China

The Port and the Image: Documenting China’s Harbor Cities

 “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

“The Port and the Image: Documenting China’s Harbor Cities” is a photographic project focused on documenting China’s ports and the cities that surround them. The goal of this project is to use art to explore the current situation of China’s port cities, and the issues that have arisen during their development in an increasingly integrated global economy. The first phase of this project involves eight photographers from different backgrounds and different fields. Each of them are paired up with a city and a port to focus on – Ningbo, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Dalian, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

The seven major ports selected in this project serve as starting points. This project seeks to use photography as a creative tool to analyze how these ports have grown: how their architecture has embraced both modernity and tradition, and how urban space, the environment, society, and culture relate to one another within them. “The Port and the Image” looks to discuss the ways in which a modern port city can be a unique vessel of history and tradition, and how the past and the present interact with one another in a contemporary context. Each of the eight photographers involved in the project have approached it from a different perspective. With their own interests and individual research as a starting point, they have formed concepts that assess both the urban area around the port, the interior beyond the coast, and the commercial and residential spaces between. In doing so, they have developed a deeper understanding of each ports unique situation. Once this has been established, each artist uses their own approach to photography (whether it is video, sound recording, or prints) to make their vision a reality.

“Under the dome of the blue sky and across the records of three continents, the sound of the swelling sea rings true to all merchants around.” The ancient Maritime Silk Road once began on China’s Southeastern coast; it curved around the Malay Peninsula, went across the Indian Ocean, up the red sea and arrived in Northern Africa, Europe and the Middle East. It was in itself a cultural phenomenon: an economic and cultural exchange where multiple religions co-existed and all prospered. The Maritime Silk Road became the basis for China’s foreign trade and its main channel for cultural interaction. With trade came commerce, bringing development to all the countries along the Silk Road route. With the South China Sea as its center, and Ningbo, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou as starting points, the Maritime Silk Road formed some of the oldest trade routes in the world.

Unfolding across three distinct sections – the imagined, the reappearing, and the coast – Zheng Chuan’s “The Port of Ningbo – Fiction and Reality” takes an intricate and imaginative perspective on the transformation of Ningbo, one of Maritime Silk Road’s main ports.

Zhu Lanqing in “Excavations of a Shipwreck” uses the discovery of a late Song Dynasty shipwreck on a beach nearby Quanzhou’s ancient Houzhou Harbor as a starting point. Positioning herself as if she was on the excavation team, Zhu Lanqing juxtaposes two different “excavations” together to reconstruct the history of the port of Quanzhou.

Chen Wenjun and Jiang Yanmei approach Guangzhou from two different angles: the former, through a series of photographs in “Wandering Through Guangzhou After 2000 years” and the later through a video titled, “Three Foreigners Doing Business in Guangzhou”. In both pieces the artists look at the role of Guangzhou as a site of historical East-West exchange and trade.

This edition of “The Port and the Image” also includes Nanjing. Ancient Nanjing was an inland hub for goods from western and central China on the Maritime Silk Road, and was also a connecting point between cities on the eastern seaboard. In 2012, Nanjing became part of the Maritime Silk Road UNESCO world heritage application. The only city in the application that is located in China’s interior, Nanjing is home to a large number of cultural relics and artifacts associated with the Maritime Silk Road. This includes ancient shipyards and docks, personal remains of ancient navigators, religious monuments, sites where foreign envoys arrived in China, tombs of foreign heads of State, ancient records, and historic, imported foreign goods.

Li Chaoyu, in his work “A Nanjing just like Nanjing”, compares the past and present of Nanjing, its history, and its role as an ancient inland port. His work discusses the reality of the problems that exist in China’s current strategy towards historical tourism.

Three of China’s major treaty ports, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dalian have been witness to another side of history. The changes that each of these cities has undergone are highlighted uniquely through the projects of three different photographers.

Yang Yuanyuan, in her work, focuses on picking out the aspects of Dalian that best represent its recent historical background. Using specific sites in the city as an index, she reconstructs a story out of narrative fragments. Her work, “Dalian Mirage”, uses photographs, text and video to approach the complex issues of colonial history and how the function of urban spaces change throughout different historical periods.

In “Goods, Decades and Sense Shift” Xu Hao takes a typological approach to how business functions as regimes change. Using symbolic objects from a second-hand market, he creates a self-narrating story. Each work is set against a different background to incite different meanings in each new context.

Huang Zhenwei in “Timeless Boundary – Hong Kong” creates a work about Hong Kong that integrates photography, sound samples, text, and other media. He focuses on daily life in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor, using it as a sample to create a surreal urban space that has no dimension of time.

“The Port and the Image: Documenting China’s Harbor Cities” in not only a visual archive of China’s port cities, rather it is a dynamic series of synthesized multi-media research on the culture of port cities in a modern, globalized world. With the support of the China Port Museum in Ningbo, this biannual project allows viewers both online and in the museum to have a better understanding of the history, landscape, and cultural diversity of China’s port cities.

  • 2019/01/24

    calendar
  • Harbor Cities of China

    calendar
  • He Yining

    calendar
tags
list_balck
The Author

He Yining

HE Yining (born. 1986), curator and writer of photography. Graduate of London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. In 2010 began work as a curator, translator, and writer specializing in photography and visual culture. Yining's exhibitions have been held in museums, art museums and galleries, and other institutions in China and Europe. including: "50 Contemporary Photobooks from China 2009-2014"(2015, FORMAT15 international Photo Festival, UK), "A Fictional Narrative Turn" (2016, Jimei Arles International Photo Festival), "The Port and The Image: Documenting China's Harbor Cities" (2017, China Port Museum), and the 3rd Beijing Photo Biennale (2018, CAFA Art Museum, Beizhen Cultural Industries Center). Her publications include "Photography in the British Classroom," and "The Port and the Image," among others. Her translations include "Photography and Travel," "Perspectives on Place: Theory and Practice in Landscape Photography" (forthcoming), "Art and Photography" (forthcoming), and "Artists Who Make Books" (forthcoming). Website: www.heyining.com

A Step Further

more arrow_links
icon_of_section

the other map

Explore arrow_links arrow

loading map - please wait...

Learning from China: India’s Urbanization Needs Better Institutional Tools: 19.075984, 72.877656
Accommodating the Dead in Cities, a Spatial Challenge?: 39.907438, 116.235718
Plans for new Daxing Airport in Beijing Revealed: 39.512120, 116.411133
When Geographers take over Wukan: 22.924667, 115.712907
The Puzzle of Land Reform in Shenzhen: 22.543099, 114.057868
Demolition: An Architectural Life-Cycle: 41.738641, 123.457317
Destruction: The Violence Goes On: 23.304757, 113.263584
The Invention of Tradition in Hangzhou, 1911-1927: 30.275674, 120.150486
Immobile Strikes for more Mobility: 39.905909, 116.391349
Skating and the City: 31.225344, 121.488892
Jinhua Architecture Park became a Wasteland: 29.108404, 119.692483
Beijing Besieged by Waste: Photographer Wang Jiuliang Investigates: 39.905909, 116.391349
Western Cities in China: Pretty Landscapes, Urban Experiments, or Both?: 31.341563, 121.575489
Densifying Rural Territories: New Territorial Planning Tools: 30.572269, 104.066541
Ford Rewards Two Chinese Apps on Urban Mobility: 29.558571, 106.549282
A Digital Library in Beijing’s Subway: 39.983557, 116.310239
Art in Beijing’s Subway: 39.905909, 116.391349
Tibet : 30% Urban Residents in 2020: 29.646923, 91.117212
Unprecedented Lawsuit and New Legal Amendments in the Fight Against Pollution: 32.520763, 119.924011
Shanghai Graffiti in Memory of Buildings marked for Demolition: 31.234745, 121.440296
Vertical Cemeteries Economize Space in Hong Kong: 22.297624, 114.248285
The Heritage of Japanese Comfort Houses in Shanghai: 31.268537, 121.498833
Guangzhou: New Initiative to Recycle Plastic: 23.116700, 113.250000
Cultural Infrastructure in China: A New Strategy in Urban Marketing : 39.600238, 109.778781
Sex and the City of Dongguan: 23.051413, 113.741798
Old Shangri-La Ravaged by Fire: 27.830682, 99.700584
Resurgence of Interest in Beijing’s Old Hutong: 39.893550, 116.386328
Guangdong acquires Carbon Market : 23.116700, 113.250000
Hong Kong: Miniature Sculptures for Social Housing: 22.281906, 114.157884
Persistent Shortage of Social Housing in Hong Kong: 22.277279, 114.194641
Brownfield in Beijing: From Decaying Steel to Electro Dance Party: 39.914476, 116.154671
Re-Purposed Bomb Shelters offer New Housing Options : 39.905909, 116.391349
New Anti-pollution Plan for Beijing: 39.905909, 116.391349
Subway passengers in Beijing now able to pay fares by recycling: 39.905909, 116.391349
Beijing’s ‘scrap communities’ threatened by urban sprawl: 40.054791, 116.376580
Infographics: Beijing expands transportation networks : 40.013857, 116.283760
Gulangyu competes for recognition as World Heritage site: 24.444704, 118.065948
Social networks influence Taipei elections: 25.037520, 121.562760
Portfolio: Hong Kong’s sky-high slums : 22.306996, 114.228973
Taiyuan’s underground trash bins receive public approval : 37.870590, 112.548879
Rebuilding and restoration in Xi’an’s ancient Han capital of Chang’an: 34.296532, 108.896386
New Threats to the Drum and Bell Towers and surrounding Historical Area: 39.939461, 116.389825
Yuening completes construction of 30-story building in 15 days: 29.364433, 113.115921
Creating land from sea: 39.013155, 118.563080
New heritage renovation and restoration measures announced in Beijing: 39.905909, 116.391349
Chongqing’s Invisibles: A Photographic Series: 29.554255, 106.569003
New rural internet network initiated in Guangxi Province: 22.969297, 107.120220
Zhang Kechun’s Yellow River : 35.644686, 100.222778
Korea’s New Songdo Digital City : 37.383912, 126.643855
Shenzhen bans Electric Bicycles : 22.543099, 114.057868
City planning from China to Angola: -9.000000, 13.266667
Collaborative mapping may provide critical support to victims of natural disasters: 14.638599, 121.058350
Mongolian Yurt in Beijing protests the city’s high rents: 39.905909, 116.391349
Hong Kong art collective CYRCLE storms skyscrapers: 22.283485, 114.224768
Harbin Sound Map: 45.765667, 126.616058
Yan’an to relocate residents of traditional troglodyte dwellings : 36.608197, 109.482880
Cultural Heritage Day: Shanghai opens more than 100 historical sites to visitors: 31.216228, 121.449094
New measures to curb car congestion: 39.905909, 116.391349
Proposal to transform Beijing into a Seaport: 39.905909, 116.391349
Chinese Urbanization overlooks religion: 28.656400, 115.877257
Beijing: A Seventh Ring Road to Enhance Integration with Hebei: 39.905909, 116.391349
Cell Phone Pedestrian Lanes planned for Chongqing : 29.611233, 106.599720
Chengdu: A new technology hub of China’s South-west: 30.676555, 104.061278
Fare hike debated for Beijing’s Public transport: 39.905909, 116.391349
Dalian building World’s largest off-shore airport: 38.964628, 121.535568
China’s first metro museum opens in Shanghai: 31.171879, 121.361718
China’s stalled baby boom: 39.905909, 116.391349
Shanghai to Digitalize City by 2016: 31.225344, 121.488892
Large-scale Strikes Spread in Southern China: 23.024917, 113.114617
A social study of Beijing’s underground homes : 39.905909, 116.391349
Arranging residential interstices in Beijing: 39.905909, 116.391349
Chuzhou announces plans for Singaporean-designed industrial park : 32.244036, 118.327560
French bridge gets second life in Shunde : 22.796297, 113.288612
Qinhuai River redevelopment process begins in Yangzhou: 32.393667, 119.436665
When architecture becomes literature: 30.245512, 120.155797
Participatory budgeting to revitalize Chengdu’s rural areas: 30.676555, 104.061278
Rural to urban training programs offered to aspiring urbanites in Ordos: 39.582501, 109.753199
Air corridors in Beijing to blow away the smog : 39.905909, 116.391349
Qingdao a hotspot for domestic tourism in China: 36.089504, 120.349719
Large-scale Redevelopment of Shanghai’s main road Pudong Avenue : 31.243567, 121.527414
Hong Kong’s religious institutions enter real estate market: 22.276039, 114.158764
Reappropriation of Nanjing railway line perseveres : 31.988379, 118.817139
Urban exodus for Chinese artists: 29.954231, 117.909019
A photographic approach to Chinese urbanization: 37.333682, -121.890022
New Study on the impact of urban design on obesity: 31.223984, 121.418682
Unlocking the power of a child’s imagination to improve urban planning practices: 28.657291, 77.227260
Prominent firms collaborate on star-shaped terminal for New Beijing airport: 39.512120, 116.411133
“Urban acupuncture” in rural China: 28.354175, 121.139897
Guardian auction house in Beijing welcomes a new museum: 39.922540, 116.403902
“Heteroscapes”: Artist Wang Bo’s urban landscapes in transition : 29.558571, 106.549282
How Japan’s aging population may have something to teach China: 35.684072, 139.768066
Hong Kong residents urged to provide opinions on built environment : 22.330976, 114.191463
Bicycles now offer a new form of urban identity : 39.947023, 116.408880
Yangtze River driving urbanization in Central China: 30.596021, 114.299280
World Bank invests in road construction and management in rural China: 37.694637, 100.525741
Water Diversion Project: the controversial completion of China’s new canal: 32.660900, 111.647010
Refrigeration plant in Xiamen transformed into repurposed art center: 24.440703, 118.083415
Ai Weiwei’s reveals Beijing portrait : 39.905909, 116.391349
The Architecture of Sound: 39.903368, 116.383624
“Pingshan” project continues in Lanzhou despite bans: 36.061255, 103.831860
Ordos: failure or temporary standstill?: 39.582501, 109.753199
Ecole de Chaillot: publication of Wang Shu’s inaugural lecture: 30.159848, 120.076361
“Pingfeng Style”: a parody on recoverded farmland: 33.628156, 114.642334
Artistic short film explores urban planning in Beijing: 39.905909, 116.391349
Singaporean city pilots new French digital technology : 1.352083, 103.819836
Digital archives of China’s cultural heritage: 39.905909, 116.391349
Temple in Shichahai converted into cinema for the blind: 39.935979, 116.390018
Exhibition and conference explores Beijing’s hutong and courtyard homes: 39.905170, 116.335897
A new generation of optimistic and ambitious migrants: 31.225344, 121.488892
Beijing’s historical axis seeks recognition in world heritage list: 39.905909, 116.391349
Vanke on a cloud: 29.642690, 106.515850
Intellectual property: the SOHO empire strikes back: 29.607318, 106.568327
The modern flaneur’s guide to Shanghai: 31.225344, 121.488892
Cities of light: the Yangtze river delta from space: 31.225344, 121.488892
Sinking cities: 38.304477, 116.838835
Chengdu struggles with severe traffic congestion: 30.676555, 104.061278
Historic heart of Liaocheng to be demolished: 36.443981, 115.964470
“Virtual Shanghai”: database sheds new light on city’s historic development: 31.225344, 121.488892
Density and poverty meet Hong Kong’s “rabbit hutches” : 22.279328, 114.162813
Chongqing’s urban fenzy: plans to develop Chaotianmen Harbor: 29.569591, 106.584227
Beijing in six acts: 39.905909, 116.391349
Wang Shu presents work at Harvard’s Kenzo Tange lecture series: 30.159848, 120.076361
Beijing’s further promotes green roofs: 39.905909, 116.391349
“From grey to green”: Shenyang transitions to sustainable green city: 41.802362, 123.427963
Rural utopia in Beijing’s Mentougou District: 39.955172, 116.093473
Living in Beijing: a suburban topography: 39.909233, 116.653948
Residential mobility in Shanghai: 31.239136, 121.399441
Apec: preemptive anto-pollution measures in Beijing: 40.386480, 116.671230
China’s new development strategies in Africa: -26.088003, 28.144452
Beijing airport: the art of landing amid the smog: 40.079857, 116.603112
China’s eco-cities and their challenges: 39.123760, 117.735330
Hong Kong’s rooftop farming: 22.396428, 114.109497
Better compensation for expropriated farmers : 22.975590, 115.346914
Protests in Ningbo suggest a possible rise in environmental awareness: 29.872034, 121.550138
Guangzhou’s Little Africa: Xiatangxi Neighborhood: 23.142201, 113.271095
Beijing blue roofs: 39.937355, 116.414545
“Ink City” by Chen Shaoxiong: 23.116700, 113.250000
Location Scouting for Antoine Boutet’s new film “South to North”: 32.660900, 111.647010
A new cast of pivotal Urban Actors: 39.983348, 116.488037
798: Arts in the City: 39.983348, 116.488037
The Visual Space of the 798: 39.983348, 116.488037
Shanghai Corniche Park: 31.182970, 121.459522
Why stay in town?: 39.980129, 116.471386
Urban changes in Xinjiang : “Sinisation” of the urban space : 43.821713, 87.562752
Real estate giant Wanda invests in Grand Paris metropolis: 48.970000, 2.463100
Municipal government decides to take on Beijing’s wastewater issues: 39.905909, 116.391349
Jing-jin-ji project celebrates its two year anniversary: 39.909233, 116.653948
Learning from a collaborative renovation of a dazayuan in Beijing: 39.928563, 116.413600
Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai linked by a giant maritime infrastructure: 22.291320, 113.931141
Portfolios: Chinese cities in their fullness and their emptiness: 39.582501, 109.753199
Taipei’s residents involved in urban regeneration: 25.037520, 121.562760
A study reveals four types of “extreme mobility” in Beijing: 39.905909, 116.391349
Moving Beijing’s townhall to Tongzhou: new stakes at the metropolitan scale: 39.909233, 116.653948
A Hongkongese architecture firm promotes social dialogue in the Chinese countryside: 22.279328, 114.162813
Beijing: The forgotten temple of Baitasi neighbourhood: 39.923640, 116.357290
A Chinese sovereign fund invests in Grand Paris: 48.856610, 2.351499
Hangzhou: Kengo Kuma completes a new museum: 30.159848, 120.076361
Exhibition of early photographs of Beijing (1870-1890): 39.905909, 116.391349
A student in architecture completes a mosque in Shaanxi Province: 34.303085, 108.487008
Beijing: state of the art: 39.940442, 116.411991
Can the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Cluster become the “Dragon Head” of the North?: 39.909233, 116.653948
Offbeat practices in China’s Public Space: 22.279328, 114.162813
China, kingdom of bike-sharing service: 30.275674, 120.150486
Portfolio: Shanghai, Dust Never Sleeps: 31.225344, 121.488892
Will Chinese Apps Redefine The Future of Bike-Sharing in France?: 48.856610, 2.351499
Mad Architects’ Proposal for Montparnasse Tower: a ’Mirage’ in Paris: 48.842110, 2.321980
The Urban Fabric of Xiamen Revealed by Atelier Sóo-Tsāi: 24.457200, 118.074500
Promoting ‘Less Is More’: Beijing’s New Urban Master Plan: 39.905909, 116.391349
Long-term planning is what Hong Kong needs to confront its land shortage: 22.279328, 114.162813
A Brief History of Beijing’s Former Princely Mansions (and their Latest Challenges): 39.934360, 116.380430
How the Greater Bay Area Initiative is Reshaping South China’s Urban Development: 22.279328, 114.162813
Urban renewal of offices in Beijing: an answer to high space demand and rising prices?: 39.905909, 116.391349
In Beijing Old City, An Alternative Revitalisation Strategy Conserves Vernacular Heritage Yet Invites Gentrification: 39.893550, 116.386328
Hong Kong In Video-Games: Mafia Culture and Urban Fabric As A Source Of Inspiration: 22.279328, 114.162813
The “Taobao villages” phenomenon: how e-commerce (also) redefines rural areas in China: 35.065973, 115.599174
Is Gentrification Inevitable in Urban Village Renewal Projects? The case of Vanke’ Wancun Project in Shenzhen: 22.661502, 114.053729
‘The Port and the Image’ – The Port of Ningbo: Fiction and Reality: 29.872034, 121.550138
Japanese Architect Arata Isozaki Receives 2019 Pritzker Prize: 30.267185, 120.082583
Authenticity, Tourism, and Residents: the Dilemma of Heritage Conservation in China: 36.443981, 115.964470
‘The Port and the Image’ – Excavations of a Shipwreck: 24.903565, 118.586082
Lighting up Hong Kong: between independence and integration, a power grid in the Pearl River Delta: 22.279328, 114.162813
How China’s Chequebook Diplomacy is Reshaping Urbanisation in Cambodia: 10.622817, 103.522110
‘The Port and the Image’ - A Nanjing Just Like Nanjing: 31.988379, 118.817139
Hong Kong Bets on Transitional Housing to Solve the Accommodation Shortage: 22.279328, 114.162813
“Forest” by Yan Wang Preston: Grafting Old Trees to Young Cities: 25.716559, 100.255051
Vietnam: Green Cities or Greenwashing?: 10.773400, 106.707200
Indonesia: How do Deal with Overload Cities ?: -6.175210, 106.827080
Reframing Chinese Villages: 30.004949, 117.983483
The Port and the Image’ - The diffuse radiation of Guangzhou’s trade history: 23.116700, 113.250000
In Shenyang and Chengdu, the Strange Aesthetic of “Flat-Pack” City: 41.795900, 123.438800
The Port and the Image’ - Xu Hao: When Objects Become Language: 31.225344, 121.488892
Oil-for-Development: The Shifting Dynamics of Sino-Angolan Relations: -8.808065, 13.232689
“Champêtre Entertainment” by Zhang Xiaowu: Contemporary Rural Lives in Wenzhou: 27.778645, 120.650826
“Hangzhou House” by Li Qing: Globalization is an Idea: 30.275674, 120.150486
Photographic Reflections of/on Urbanity: The Creative Resilience of Java’s Slums: -7.801140, 110.365391