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U-Theque

Ou Ning & Cao Fei
San Yuan Li

Video, Book and Prints, 2003

A collaborative work by Ou Ning, Cao Fei and U-thèque members, this is a case study of the typical 'village-amidst-the-city' phenomenon in the process of urbanization in Ghangzhou city. San Yuan Li, which used to mark the physical and mental borderline of Guangzhou city has now become a little dot in the endless urban network.  Armed with DV cameras, the U-theque crew penetrated San Yuan Li village as a kind of 'city flâneurs', attempting to rethink the debt of history, the confrontation and reconciliation between the process of modernization and the patriarchal clan system and rural community system of Canton, as well as the weird architectures and the human-scape emerging in this village-amidst-the city.

'To survive such new contradictions and harshness, many communities, especially dwellers of 'extra-territories' such as San Yuan Li, are forced to invent and promote alternative forms of activities in order to organise their own social structures. The outcome of such a process, or struggle for survival, are often highly innovative, flexible and fluid urban structures which give birth to 'outlawed' forms of social solidarity as well as conflicts. This demonstrates that China's social mutation is a far more diverse and vital picture than any scenario that mainstream media would like to present.

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