China in Flux: Movement, Urbanization, and Memory

Over the past several decades, China’s rapid economic development and urbanization have profoundly transformed its landscapes, communities, and everyday lives. This exhibition explores these transformations through three photographic series by contemporary Chinese artists: Qian Haifeng’s Green Trains, Tang Haowu’s Migrant Workers, and Li Ming’s Post–Three Gorges.

Together, these works offer distinct yet interconnected perspectives on the human experiences behind China’s sweeping social and economic changes. From documenting journeys aboard slow trains and the lives of migrant workers to capturing landscapes and communities reshaped by the Three Gorges Dam project, these photographs tell stories of movement, displacement, resilience, and memory. Moving beyond grand narratives of modernization and progress, the photographers focus on the experiences of ordinary people navigating a rapidly changing society. With empathy and respect, they capture moments of everyday life, with all its joys and sorrows, preserving a visual record of a defining period in China’s modern history. The exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the relationships between people and their environments, and between development, loss, and remembrance.