Utopia in Practice: Bishan Project and Rural Reconstruction

This book is a collection of texts on one of China’s boldest social experiments in recent years: the rural reconstruction project in Bishan. The Bishan Project (2011-2016) was a rural reconstruction project in a small village Bishan, Anhui Province, China.

The writings describe and criticize the social problems caused by China’s over-loading urbanization process and starts a a contemporary agrarianism and agritopianism discourse to resist the modernism and developmentalism doctrine which dominated China for more than a century, answering a global desire for the theory and action of the alternative social solution for today’s environmental and political crises.This practical utopian commune project ran for 6 years and caused a national debate on rural issues in China, when it was invited to be exhibited and presented abroad.

This collection of writing will be of interest to artists, China scholars, architects, and the cultural community at large.

Ou Ning is director of documentaries San Yuan Li and Meishi Street, chief curator of 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, jury member of 8th Benesse Prize at 53rd Venice Biennale, member of Asian Art Council at Guggenheim Museum, founding chief editor of literary journal Chutzpah!, founder of Bishan Project, visiting professor of GSAPP, Columbia University and research fellow of Center for Arts, Design and Social Research in Boston, USA.