A Journey Through Modern Kuling

4-channel video Installation 2025

This 4-channel video installation documents our on-site research trip through Kuling on Mount Lu, a historic mountain retreat once populated by Western missionaries and diplomats in early 20th-century China. It invites viewers to contemplate how time and nature inevitably transform human constructions of power and permanence.

It creates an environment surrounding the central performance stage. This configuration establishes a dialogue between the documented videos in Kuling and the physical theatrical space, allowing viewers to experience both the records and their architectural echo simultaneously.

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Video Channel 1: The Ascent

This video documents our journey along the same ancient path that Edward and many others before him took up the Mountain Lu, as we follow his footsteps and history.

Video Channel 2: The Absence of Edward S. Little

This video documents a performance in which I embody the ghost of Edward at the site of his former residence in Kuling.

Video Channel 3: Nature’s Resurrection

This video presents a captivating portrait of ecological transformation in abandoned houses. This visual meditation reveals how non-human life forms continually reshape and repurpose Kuling’s forgotten colonial architectural legacy.

Video Channel 4: The Empty Church

The final video presents an old Christian church that is under construction as both an archaeological site and a theatrical space. Crumbling walls expose ancient stones beneath peeling paint, transforming the abandoned structure into a haunting, empty stage.