A Family Letter 消失的侨批
Subject 主题Time 时间 ｜ Location 地点
Project Overview 项目概述
A Family Letter｜Tracing Memories of Nanyang and the Tangible Longing in Letters from Home
消失的侨批｜追寻南洋往事与见字如面的乡愁
Exhibition Dates: January 10 – March 11, 2024
Opening Time: January 10, 2024, at 15:00
Venue: Lijiazhuang Hotel (Former Residence of Li Qingquan), Gulangyu, Xiamen
展览时间: 2024年1月10日至3月11日
开幕时间: 2024年1月10日 15:00
展览地址: 厦门鼓浪屿·李家庄酒店(李清泉故居）
The 2024 Siming Mountains & Sea Art Season is an innovative art exhibition and cultural event series that weaves together “art, city, tourism, and life” through newly designed mountain-sea art routes. From January 10 to March 11, 2024, a range of exhibitions and cultural activities will take place across Huangcuo Taitou, Zhongshan Road, and Gulangyu in Siming District, Xiamen. As part of the Gulangyu section, the first installment of the “Southern Memories” Micro Film Exhibition Series—curated by GyreCraft—features a solo exhibition titled “The Vanishing Qiaopi | A Family Letter” at Lijiazhuang Hotel (Former Residence of Overseas Chinese Li Qingquan), Gulangyu. The exhibition presents the latest digital video works, spatial performances, and derivative projects—including mapping, research, booklets, traditional crafts, and manuscripts—by a group of artists from the China Academy of Art: Chen Jiazi, Gao Muyuan, and Wei Wenwen. The project also invites Life Monthly as a supporting exhibition publication and media observer. The exhibition opened to the public on January 10, 2024, and will run through March 11.
2024思明山海艺术季是一项创新型的艺术展览及文化活动，通过山海艺术漫游新线路，将“艺术·城市·文旅·生活”有机串联。2024年1月10日-3月11日期间，一系列艺术展览与城市人文活动将在厦门思明区的黄厝塔头、中山路、鼓浪屿举办。其中，鼓浪屿板块由 环流 GyreCrafi策展 --“南方记忆”影像微个展(第一期)将于厦门鼓浪屿·李家庄酒店(华侨李清泉故居)呈现毕业于中国美术学院的艺术家小组:陈嘉梓、高牧远 、韦雯雯的个展「消失的侨批|A Family Letter」，围绕其最新创作的数字影像、空间展演，以及衍生出的制图、研究、册子、手艺及手稿等。同时该项目特邀《生活月刊》作为展览刊物支持与媒体观察。展览于2023年1月10日面对公众开放，并将展至3月11日。
Artists: Chen Jiazi, Gao Muyuan, Wei Wenwen
Curated by GyreCraft
艺术家: 陈嘉梓、高牧远、韦雯雯
策展: 环流GyreCraft
Chen Jiazi
Graduated from the Institute of Society and Strategy at the China Academy of Art; digital art creator; founder of Continuous Track Studio. He is committed to exploring the relationship between society and human scale, and expressing his personal perspective through digital imagery and multi-media spatial storytelling. His works have been exhibited at major venues including the 13th Shanghai Biennale “Meta-Transmutation” at the Power Station of Art, the ADAE Asia Digital Art Exhibition at Times Art Museum (Beijing), the West Bund Art & Design Fair at West Bund Art Center (Shanghai), the Epic of the Earth Art Exhibition, The Tang Poetry Road II: Endless Mountain Journey at the Zhejiang Exhibition Hall, and the TOPBIDDER: Animal Tales NFT Blockchain Art Exhibition.
He has received numerous national and international awards, including Platinum Creativity Award, International Vanguard Visual Arts Award, Hong Kong Contemporary Design Award, CGDA, BICC, IDC Design Award, and the CADA Japan Concept Art Award, among others.
陈嘉梓
毕业于中国美术学院社会与策略研究所;数字艺术创作者;连续履带工作室创始人。致力于通过数字影像与多媒介空间叙事创作反映社会与人的尺度关系及自我观点表达。作品曾在上海双年展“元·流变”(上海西岸美术馆)、ADAE亚洲数字艺术展(北京时代美术馆)、西岸艺术与设计博览会(上海西岸客顶艺术中心)、大地史诗艺术展、唐诗之路2青山行不尽艺术展(浙江展览馆)TOPBIDDER-动物物语NFT区块链艺术展等地展出，获得白金创意、国际先锋视觉艺术奖、香港当代设计奖、CGDA、BICC、IDC设计奖、CADA日本概念艺术等国内外多个奖项。
Gao Muyuan
Graduated from the Institute of Society and Strategy at the China Academy of Art; digital art creator. She engages in “labor and creation without seeking anything in return,” tirelessly climbing mountains and adventuring with passionate purpose, dedicated to crafting multi‑media narrative works. Her works have been exhibited at prestigious venues, including the 13th Shanghai Biennale “Meta‑Transmutation” at the Power Station of Art (Shanghai West Bund Art Museum) and the Wuhan Triennale at the Hubei Museum of Art. She was also selected for the China section of the INTERFILM & KUKI Film Festival. Gao has received numerous domestic and international honors, including the DFL International Creative Design Award, the CADA Japan Conceptual Art & Design Award, the Bauhaus Award, the BICC Award, the ICAD, and the Golden Crown International Environmental & Public Welfare Design Competition, among others.
高牧远
毕业于中国美术学院社会与策略研究所;数字艺术创作者。“什么也不图”地劳作与创造，不辞辛劳地登上山去，以无用的激情不断冒险，致力于多媒介叙事的创作表达。作品曾在上海双年展“元·流变”(上海西岸美术馆)、武汉三年展(湖北省美术馆)展出;入选INTERFILM&KUKI电影节中国赛区;以及获得DFL国际创意设计奖、CADA日本概念艺术设计奖、包豪斯奖、BICC、ICAD、GoldenCrown金戴设计奖国际环保公益设计大赛等国内外多个奖项。
Wei Wenwen
Graduated from the Social Narrative Studio at the Institute of Society and Strategy, China Academy of Art; visual explorer and narrative performer. Her practice is driven by a commitment to labor and creation “without seeking anything in return,” carrying her tirelessly into the mountains with adventurous and purposeless passion.
韦雯雯
毕业于中国美术学院社会与策略社会叙事工作室，致力于视觉探索与叙事展演。作品曾在浙江展览馆，北京时代美术馆展出。曾获得白金创意、PREMIOROCA、CADA、C-IDEA、CROSS、国际环保设计公益奖ADAE亚洲数字艺术奖等国内外奖项。
Amid the tides of treaty port commerce, Xiaogongyuan (Little Park) became entwined with the history of foreign trade along China’s southeastern coast and the Pearl River Delta. This work uses Xiaogongyuan as a spatial entry point to trace its 200-year trajectory of rise and decline. Taking Qiaopi (correspondence from overseas Chinese) and "Going to Nanyang" as narrative threads, the piece weaves together national, historical, and personal stories. Its narrative structure is composed of three parts: “Qiaopi” (family and memory), “Local Gazetteer” (space and history), and “Oral Accounts” (individuals and recollection), forming a layered web of storytelling. The Minnan and Chaoshan regions of southeastern China, as gateways to the “further south” of Nanyang, have long carried emotional and historical weight. In the oral traditions spoken in the Teochew dialect, themes of departure and return, hardship and hope intertwine—people caught in the currents of history. From its emergence in the mid-19th century to its disappearance by the late 20th century, the Qiaopi industry documented not only everyday life, but also broader shifts in economy, transport, finance, and politics across different eras and regions. Through the lens of a letter-writer, the film reflects how countless ordinary individuals were swept forward by a grand historical momentum. If “going to Nanyang” represented risk and ambition, then “Qiaopi” carried the emotional weight of resilience and longing. The work integrates iron-rod puppetry, Teochew oral singing, and staged reenactments, creating a rich interplay between reality and fiction: between puppets and lived experience, between historical research and literary imagination, and between documentary and digital fabrication. These layers converge into a poignant, textured narrative. Created as a graduation project by Chen Jiazi, Gao Muyuan, and Wei Wenwen from the China Academy of Art, the film pays tribute to Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Puppetmaster, telling a family story of generational search, letters, and separation across shifting historical landscapes. In The Disappearing Qiaopi, Xiaogongyuan serves as a symbolic site of early modern trade. The artists conducted extensive fieldwork and archival research, drawing from disciplines such as geography, history, economics, sociology, and cultural studies. Through text, illustration, collage, and video, they developed a hybrid cartographic method—combining maps, timelines, infographics, and relational diagrams—to reflect the intersections between local space and global history.
开埠通商的时代浪潮，将“小公园”卷入东南沿海与珠三角对外贸易的发展史。作品以小公园为空间切入点，回溯其200年兴衰，以“侨批”与“下南洋”为主线，串联家国、时代与个体三重叙事。其结构分为“侨批”（家族与记忆）、“方志”（空间与历史）、“口述”（个人与回忆），构成多层次的叙事网。闽南、粤东潮汕作为通向“更远南方”的门户，承载着人们关于南洋的情感与历史。潮音口述中，奔赴与归乡、苦难与希望交织，人们在历史浪潮中沉浮不定。侨批业自19世纪中期兴起，至20世纪末消亡，残存侨批不仅记录民生百态，也映照出各时代的经济、交通、金融与政治变迁。影片通过一位写批人的视角，折射出无数小人物如何在历史巨流中前行。“下南洋”是冒险与闯荡，“侨批”则是其中柔情的寄托。作品结合铁枝木偶、口述潮音与虚构搬演，构建出三重虚实关系：戏偶与人生、历史与文学、实拍与虚拟，层层交织，动人深刻。该毕业创作由中国美院陈嘉梓、高牧远、韦雯雯共同完成，向侯孝贤《戏梦人生》致敬，讲述一个家庭跨越时代、通信与别离的故事。《消失的侨批》以小公园为“通商口岸”的象征展开调研，艺术家综合地理、历史、文化等多学科知识，融合文本、插画、拼贴与影像语言，发展出地图、时间轴、关系图等跨媒介的图解方法，回应地方空间与全球历史的交汇。
The opening sequence of A Family Letter, a visual meditation on the lost letters of the Chinese diaspora
消失的侨批 片头The opening sequence of A Family Letter, a visual meditation on the lost letters of the Chinese diaspora
消失的侨批 片头