I’m participating in an international artists’ residency program hosted by Red Gate Gallery, and my apartment is in Feijiacun, a growing village of migrant workers and artists, on the outskirts of Beijing.
This is where a nostalgic human-scale China can be found—dusty streets, dumpling restaurants, small shops selling household goods, vegetable stalls, and a casual flow of pedestrians, motorcycles, baby carriages, and trucks. But the place is dynamic, not settled–people move in and out, and buildings come and go. The village has grown from an expanse of fields near the airport to a bustling small marketplace with makeshift shopfronts and temporary homes. What is here today may be gone tomorrow.
