I work from listening, participation, and return visits. From the changing rhythms of Xi'an drum music to the everyday stories of the Qinling Mountains, I trace how culture and place become lived relationships.
This documentary follows inheritors and younger performers of Xi'an drum music as they negotiate cultural authenticity alongside the practical demands of making a living.
Rather than treating tradition as fixed, the work attends to rehearsal rooms, performances, and the choices that allow a living practice to continue.
Through rehearsals, conversations, and reflective notes, I moved from observer to participant. This ongoing fieldwork asks how a tradition crosses generations and gradually becomes a language one can speak from within.
I came to this national wetland park expecting to photograph the crested ibis it was set to protect.
Instead, I discovered another form of conservation. The park gave children at an underfunded local school unprecedented access to wildlife education.
It even enabled them to preserve animals that have died naturally as specimens for their school museum.
To understand a place is to stay long enough for its questions to change your own.