On 8 March, 1938, It suddenly snowed gravely in Shanghai. Xiao Yang, a young girl from Suzhou, arrived alone in the Concession, the “isolated island” in the chaos of war, to seek for her uncle. In March, 2019, also in the cold wind of early spring, the audience put on their earphones. Listening to the stories of Xiao Yang, following the footsteps of this fictional character, they walk along the real Fuzhou Road for a journey of rediscovery of mixed past and present, across fragments from real life dangling along the border of fantasy, to be happily lost in the story and the city confused in time and space.


Restoring historical images of Fuzhou Road during the process of research and development


Here They Wu-er continues the exploration of _ao_ao_ing ensemble’s  “Tourists Like Us” series that focuses on topics around migration and mobility and attempts to adopt a tourist perspective for daily situations. Initiated by July from Suzhou, the story is based on the traces of the Wu-ers’ life and trade in Shanghai according to the Catalogue of Stores and Streets in Shanghai (published in 1939 and modified in 1947). By chasing, representing, adapting, and appropriating traces from the old times, combined with personal accounts, it creates scenes where the historical and the  contemporary, the past and the present, the imagined and the real interweave.



Project’s exhibition as part of “Our Places”, Shanghai Biennial “City Project” Showcase (2019)


CREDITS
Collective creation and production
July (initiator), Selena, LIN Cuixi, XIAO Meiyue, Eva


Voice by
July, Eva, LIN Cuixi, GU Jingsheng, HU Qiwei, Harry Jiang, Willehm Wang, WANG Weijie, YANG Jianjun, ZHANG Yuan, ZOU Siyang

Photos and videos by
Wei Ding, Harry Jiang, DONG Tingting, Wu Lu, HUANG Ziyue

Thanks to
DONG Tingting, Dan T Fang, LIU Zhiao,
Yi Feng, Feng Theatre,
Xiaohe, Angela, Naozi,
Keng, CHENG Yuan, Jessica,
Lelia TahaBurt,
Rae Xu, Yuan and his father, CHEN Ji, YU Yuehua, WEI Yuqing, MA Danhong, TAO Chong, WANG Lu, WU Meng, Athena MA (PSA),
And all the “Wu-er” interviewees.

Qing Lian Ge Auction House Co.,Ltd. Shanghai
Foreign Language Bookstore (Fuzhou Road)
Raffles City (Shanghai)
Tomorrow Bookstore with Mr. Zhu & Mr. Yang

TIMELINE

City Walk & Audio Tour


March 2019
@ Fuzhou Road, Shanghai
(Self-produced & as part of “Our Places” Shanghai Biennial “City Project”)

May 2021 - March 2022
@ Fuzhou Road and People’s Square, Shanghai
(Co-operated by 51Traveler Travel Agency)


Exhibitions

8-17 March 2019
Part of “Our Places”, Shanghai Biennial “City Project” Showcase
@ Power Station of Art, 5D Space

July 2022
Part of "Close up: 100 Moments for a Better China" by the Research Institute of Beautiful China Initiative
@ International Design Museum of China, China Academy of Art