Lego-ing Bacheng
A speculative map of memory, redevelopment, and disappearing local heritage.
2025 Spring
This project is part of a larger research and creative project "Gathering the Cracks" in collaboration with Junyi Yu & Zhiyuan Ma.
Visit Gathering the Cracks website
Publication:
Ma, Z., Yu, J., & Wang, J. (2026).
Gathering the Cracks: Poetic Counter-Mapping of Informal Networks in Bacheng.
Abstract accepted to ASC Brazil 2026: Conversational Confluences, Track 6: Competing Cartographies.
The project Lego-ing Bacheng is an interactive web-based narrative that explores cultural erosion and memory in Bacheng's old town amidst rapid urban redevelopment. It merges immersive fieldwork findings, including photographs, audio, and oral histories, with creative storytelling and web technology to reanimate a disappearing local heritage.
Through a multi-layered design, the project juxtaposes archival memories against present-day realities, inviting users to reflect on the tension between progress and preservation and to engage with the traces of a vanishing community.