Nandan Island

This project unfolds in two phases: The first, in 2023, captures my efforts to protect the "chaotic," "backward," and "disordered" Nandan community within a modern city center. The second, in 2024, reflects on the loss and commemoration of Nandan's disappearance upon my return.
In 2023, I found that Nandan was primarily inhabited by elderly Shanghainese speakers and featured unique integrated spaces like hardware shops, gardens, barbershops, and dance halls—fostering strong autonomy and exclusivity. Interviews revealed that mainstream labels like "run-down" and "backward" were undermining these ecosystems. In response, I created a conceptual “Nandan Island” with a passport system and a closed-loop calendar to safeguard its identity. Yet, by 2024, rather than being preserved, Nandan Island entered a phase of renewal and replacement, marking the failure of my preservation efforts.
This project urges the public to reconsider the interplay between old and new, modern and "backward," mainstream and marginal, in a post-human era.