Nomad Project｜A time and space journey to find more than 200 letter writers from 10 years ago

• 1. Introduce yourself

Hello,

See words as faces,

My name is Linxi, a curious human being moving forward on the road to gender and class freedom.

A young woman from a small town, a former student on leave, an artist, and a Master of Art from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Limoges, France.

Studied and lived in France, Sweden and Chengdu. Focus on issues such as feminism, personal growth, sustainable lifestyle, cross-circle and cross-cultural life, and the possibility of education. A combination of enthusiasm and sensitivity, and likes to experiment and explore. I have experienced: Backpacking in 18 countries around the world, volunteering for several NGOs in France and China, farming at the Permanent Farm, visiting ecological communities in France and Italy, meditating in Thai temples, and volunteering at the Youth Hostel in Shaxi Teahouse, Yunnan. Now I am also working on my own podcast "Eat What You See" with friends.

During his schooling, he won multiple scholarships from France, Sweden and China. Participated in the EU ERASMUS+ "CR-I-TO-WE-TY" project. As an artist, he participated in the French "L'Été Possible" and "Curieux Monuments" art festivals, and art residency in French institutions such as École d'art de Grand Angouleme, La Maison François Méchain, and La Métived. His artistic works have also been exhibited in Sweden, France Exhibited in many exhibitions in China.

• 2. Where do you want to go and why?

Wenjiang Middle School in Sichuan Province in 2014 Wenjiang Middle School

Wenjiang Middle School is the school where I attended my junior and senior high schools. It is an ordinary public middle school located in a county in the suburbs of Chengdu. The main source of students comes from Wenjiang urban area and its affiliated towns, as well as a few Chengdu and surrounding suburban counties. In 2014, when I was a sophomore in high school, I was the president of the school's speech and eloquence club. I teamed up with several other clubs in the school, and we launched an event in the name of the club called: " To Yourself in 10 Years ."

During the event, we encouraged everyone to start a dialogue with themselves ten years later by writing letters, and assured everyone that we would keep these letters and send them to you ten years later. At that time, we collected more than 200 letters from the three grades of the school. Some students even put change and coins in the letters, saying that in ten years these money will become antiques. I'm not sure whether this money has become antiques, but today in 2024, with the massive popularity of mobile payments, this cash has indeed become rare to a certain extent. The disappearance of paper money is a small trace of the huge social changes in this decade.

From 2014 to 2024, I have gone from 16 to 26 years old in ten years. After living in Europe for 6 years, I really want to return to the city where I was born and raised to see how the current me and the past me can collide. My classmates who were 15/16/17 years old back then are already 25/26/27 years old today. I am also very curious, what are the students who studied in the classroom and did gymnastics on the same playground with me back then, what are they like today?

Where are they born now?

What is everyone's life like?

Do they still remember their dreams back then?

Did they realize their dreams back then?

What do the 26-year-olds want to say to their 16-year-old selves?

With these curiosity, I want to fulfill my promise in 2024 and hand these letters back to the people who wrote them one by one, and talk to them about the changes and feelings over the years. No matter whether they are still in Wenjiang or not, as long as I can contact them, no matter where they are in the world, I will deliver them to them.

"The personal is political", I believe that every individual's life experience is important and powerful, and they deserve to be told. I was born and raised in a town in southwest China. My experiences in rural cities and different countries have allowed me to outline the outline of my hometown from all the differences, and also made me more sensitive to the unfair distribution of resources. My alma mater: Wenjiang Middle School was an ordinary public high school in a relatively backward county in southwestern China. Most of my peers when I went to school also grew up under the one-child policy. Our parents grew up during China's economic upswing, but when we first entered society, we faced an era when China's economy was in decline and the youth unemployment rate reached 20%.

Against this social background, I began to think:

For children from towns and cities, how much influence do their families have on their personal experiences?

What are the specific differences between women’s and men’s learning and working life experiences?

What do young people in Chengdu, southwest China, care about? What are you worried about? What are the main sources of stress? What is the sense of accomplishment in life? What is dream?

I want to draw a picture of the life experiences of young people in Southwest China from the changes of the more than 200 students who participated in the event.

• 3. What are your specific nomadic plans?

Go find more than 200 alumni who wrote letters and start a space-time dialogue with yourself ten years ago.

This journey is divided into three parts: finding the letter writer, returning the letter to them, and summarizing and sharing the process materials .

Finding the sender : I have kept more than 200 letters at home, and the first task is to contact the sender. able to pass:

• Contact the writer directly through the address, phone number and family member’s address and phone number left in the letter, as well as the QQ of the year

• Publish event information in alumni groups and circles of friends, and search through a network of acquaintances

• Publish information on public social platforms such as Xiaohongshu, WeChat, and Weibo

• Go back to school and ask the teacher if the school still has the contact information from that time

Return the letter to them: Based on the information collected in the first part, revisit the letter writer and hand the letter to her face to face (for financial reasons, domestic addresses only). And with their consent, record the process of them reading the letter. And let’s talk about the changes over the years, current living conditions, and other issues. The entire process is recorded in the form of videos, photos, texts, etc. Interview question reference:

• (Before reading the letter) Do you still remember what you wrote back then?

• What was high school like for you?

• What is your life like now?

• How do you view your imagination of your future at that time and your actual life now?

• If you saw your 16-year-old self again now, what would you want to say to her?

Summary and sharing of process materials: Based on the collected materials in the first and second stages, artistic creation (form: video, installation, exhibition, etc.). And hold an offline exhibition in Chengdu and organize sharing sessions.

The overall planning time is 5 months . Because the time for tracing and sending letters is relatively fluid and random, and needs to be flexibly arranged according to the time of tracing and sending letters, the estimated time for these two parts is three months. Afterwards, the material sorting, creation and sharing sessions will also require a lot of time for material sorting and testing, and communication with the Chengdu venue, so it will also take two or two months.

Budget: Accommodation + meals: 2,500/month, the second part of the travel expenses (domestic only): 5,000, final creative exhibition and other materials: 1,000

Total: 2500X5+5000+1000=18500 (RMB)

• 4. If possible, how would you like to interact with the local area?

In terms of interacting with the local area, I plan to start from three levels : personal, school, and society .

• If time and funding permit, I hope that in addition to delivering letters and interviews, I can live with the letter writers for a few days and record their more detailed and rich daily lives.

• Revisit our former alma mater: Wenjiang Middle School. And communicate with the school to find some possibilities for joint cooperation. For example: hold a project screening or sharing session at school, invite alumni who have graduated to participate in the activity, and return to school to share their experiences with current students (this can be done by inviting more people with different educational backgrounds and working in different fields. several games).

• In Chengdu or other cities, different forms of activities are organized according to this theme. For example: performance sites, sharing sessions, round table discussions, workshops and other activities.

Because this topic is closely related to everyone and has a wide audience, I hope to organize the event in accordance with the principle of not having too high a threshold for knowledge and economy throughout the process.

• 5. How do you plan to document the entire trip?

I will record and share the entire trip from three perspectives: me (the organizer), the letter writer (direct participant), and the guests and listeners at the later events (indirect participants). Specifically:

Me (1-3 months early in the trip ): Record the process of searching for people through a tracing diary (text + pictures), and share it on social platforms in a timely manner.

Letter writer (4-5 months into the middle of the trip) : With the other party’s consent, film the process of reading the letter and chatting. And in the later stage of the project, it was edited into a relatively complete video and screened and shared offline.

Later activities: Based on the materials in the first and second parts, I will hold a small exhibition in Chengdu and invite guests on related topics to organize a series of activities on the opening day. Guest field reference: sociology, education, etc. Activity format reference: guest sharing sessions, round table discussions, improvisational performance/art related workshops, etc.

During the entire project process, participants can also be invited to record and share podcasts at will.

Reference:

Books: Huang Deng's "My Second Student"; Zheng Yajun's "After the Gold List, the Mystery of College Students' Divided Outcomes"; Paul Fussell's "Style: Social Class and Life Taste"; Annette LaRue "Unequal Childhood" 》

Documentary: Li Yifan "Kill Matt, I Love You"; Zheng Qiong "The Way Out"

Music: KEY.L Liu Cong— Hey KONG

Thank you for reading my nomadic plan. You are also welcome to clap for me, support and share my nomadic plan.

I wish you become someone your 16-year-old self would like