{ Transfiguration _ Beijing }
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Monologue :
Beijing has changed so much and so fast!!!
She has become a modern city after almost 50 years of change
I couldn’t find any memory in this changing process
In fact, this kind of changing process has destroyed my memory
So I couldn’t distinguish the differences between illusion and reality.
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Part 01: Red Beijing 1960-1979
Part 02: Ideal Beijing 1980-1999
Modern Beijing 1999-2007
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Preface:
It is a interactive artwork not just about memories in Beijing, but also an interesting and meaningful experience trip about the transfigurations of Beijing during past 50 years: Citizens constantly rebuild themselves from the ground up, in a city which constantly rewrites its own history…
Inspiration:
I was born in Beijing, and I’ve been living there for all my previous life. From the 1960s to present days, the city has undergone earth-shaking changes, which is reflected not only in the landscape of the city, but also in the citizen’s lifestyle, mental outlook and concept of values. Beijing transfigurated from an ancient capital into a modern international metropolis. We have an entire generation that has grown up with the city. We have changing the appearance of the Beijing, and the city also gives us more feelings and inspirations about life changing.
I tried to summarize the visible impression about the great changing of Beijing during the past 50 years.Summarized visual information of different period features: typical visual symbols, virtual moving images and music, abstract feelings or memories fragments. Through creating the interesting atmosphere, this interactive artwork aims at bringing participants into memories trip to recall their memories about Beijing and experience its great change!
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Part 01: Red Beijing 1960-1979
Keywords: Cultural Revolution, political atmosphere
Culture Background: In the early 1960s, China undertook a massive economic and social reconstruction. In 1966, China had experienced the new movement, the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”. Citizen had an uptight life and earned low incomes in traditional planned economy decade.
Keywords: Old Beijing Hutong /SiheYuan alley
Culture Background: Many citizens leave in Hutongs in the narrow lanes where their families have lived there for generations. Everywhere in Beijing is full fill with ancient architectures, poor streets and narrow roads.
Keywords: childhood memory, simple games & toys , naïve dreams in Hutongs
Culture Background: My parents grew up in this decade. They told me they often remind that years: the simple games and toys they played with friends; the old revolutionary songs they song with classmates; the naïve dreams and simple life in Hutongs are the most treasured memories during that decade.
Part 02: Ideal Beijing 1980-1999
With the deepening reform and opening up policy, people’s traditional notion and concept had been changed gradually. Compared with people in Red Beijing, more and more young generation in ideal decade want to pursue their ideal dreams. Young artists and FQ obsessed with art and music, they used exaggerated and extreme behaviors to express their discontenting about social conditions.
With the progress of urbanization, many old Hutongs had turned down and replaced by the high buildings or wide roads during 1980-1999. Many citizens had to leave the Hutongs with complex feeling and nostalgic sensation where their families had lived there for generations, and resided in apartment buildings with modern facilities. Everywhere in Beijing can saw the confusion scene of dismantlement and the contradiction of city construction between Hutongs and tall buildings.
An increasing number of poor people wandered and roved in Beijing for their ideal dreams, parts of the avant-gardes are action artists, painting artists and rock singers, their behaviors and speeches are the typical symbol in ideal decade. When young Rock & Roll singer sang, “Why do you sneer that I have nothing,” the catch-line of best-known song, I Have Nothing, Chinese audiences were both appalled and thrilled. “I Have Nothing gave voice to a whole generation. It was an era when the nation was changing, and so were its people, to the extent that we didn’t know ourselves any longer. Rock & Roll singer and artist stood out as an individual, an icon of rebellion and a member of the vanguard. The songs recall our memory, and wrath resonated in our hearts.
Modern Beijing 1999-2007
The situation changed with the new millennium. Coupled with globalization and Olympic Games, which saw the increased introduction of foreign enterprises and brands into the Chinese market, and the integration of China into the WTO in 2001, commercialism became the driving force for a new class of entrepreneurs. Beijing boomed as a consumer city took hold. Ultramodern shopping malls replaced time-honored stores, and restaurants stopped closing early to welcome customers who were dining later and later. Beijing became an international metropolis where, like everywhere in the world, evenings are not spent necessarily at home in front of a television set. Many great changes during 2000-2008 , which are now the focus of world attention, have taken place in Beijing, especially since the transformation of people’s conception during the last two decades; of having political stability; soaring economy; thriving markets; people’s life improving; tall buildings standing in great numbers; expressways radiating in all directions, flyovers connecting each other, and so on.
With the development of economy and trade, Beijing thrives today as the political and cultural capital of China as well as a center of international activity and an important socialist base. New buildings and place like Zhongguancun and CBD have been built in the city , the city full filled with High-grade hotels, villas and apartments, post-modern skyscrapers, business centers, entertainment centers and shopping malls. So many amazing things are going on here. Beijing really has a right to call itself an international city. It’s still changing constantly. It’s hard to imagine how much planning and building in the future.
In fact, in recent years, the values, mentality and customs of the modern citizen have changed dramatically. In the modern ages, love becoming the most important subject which influences modern people’s life. I create a short flash to show the modern people’s love value in order to reflect the most typical spirit of modern age
Weixuan_Zhao 