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Echoes of the Past – Zhaoyang Chen
Built on archival research and grounded in personal memory—not only my own family’s historical ties to the Third Front, but more importantly the lived experiences of those I interviewed—the work positions individual memory within the larger machinery of state history.
Artist : Zhaoyang Chen
Series : Echoes of the Past
Developed as part of Zhaoyang’s major project from London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.
The Third Front Movement (1964–1980) was a Cold War-era state initiative that mobilized over four million workers and relocated large parts of China’s industrial system to remote inland areas in the name of national defense. Though it fundamentally reshaped the social and geographic fabric of the country, this history remains marginal in China’s official narrative.
Echoes of the Past focuses on four factory sites linked to different phases of the Third Front. The project weaves together photography, interviews, and fragments of state documents to trace how these places have been abandoned, repurposed, or erased over time. Their shifting physical states reflect broader ideological transitions and ruptures in historical memory.
Built on archival research and grounded in personal memory—not only my own family’s historical ties to the Third Front, but more importantly the lived experiences of those I interviewed—the work positions individual memory within the larger machinery of state history. Because the project challenges dominant historical narratives, it employs visual strategies such as abstraction, symbolic decay, and juxtaposition of official iconography with quiet testimony.
The accompanying photobook adopts a layered editorial structure where institutional language and personal accounts coexist, encouraging the viewer to read between the lines and interpret what is left unsaid.
© Zhaoyang Chen – All rights reserved
