Stories and Possibility of Social Change in Rural China

​A year after first sharing her work at Welcome to Chinatown, Swedish-born Chinese writer, photographer, ethnographer, and organiser Vivianne Zhang Wei returns to reflect on her now over two years of sustained engagement with grassroots stories and experiences of China's rural transformation.

​Through vignettes from her Chinese Farm Chronicles project, past year of academic research, and current efforts to cultivate Common Ground • 乡遇, Vivianne will trace the evolution of her continuous thinking and rethinking – on rural development on China, but above all on her own practice of documenting it. Why is it that we are drawn to these stories of social change elsewhere, and what are the possibilities and responsibilities that come with engaging with them?

​She will also voice some thoughts-in-progress on how she, going forward, hopes to be more ambitious about ensuring her work does not simply reproduce dominant imaginaries of development and rurality — but instead contributes to making visible the existence and possibility of alternatives.

​The session is free to join, but RSVP required as capacity is limited! We would also warmly invite those who are able to make a suggested $10 donation to the Catskills Agrarian Alliance (CAA), in support of their work fostering a healthy and just food system in the Catskills region of New York, NYC, and beyond.