NIE Xiaoyi

In the living room, everyone came in their pajamas to listen — and of course, tea was brewing. Next time I’ll bring some Rooibos. I talked about my own research... I‘m usually the one interviewing people, so this was a chance to share my own thinking: how, in contemporary art practice, ”curating“ has evolved into a form of ”instigation“ (cedong) that begins from the individual — and with it, how one might weave networks and ecologies outward from oneself. Text / Nie Xiaoyi @3_ears Photo 1 / Osho Zen Tarot Photo 2 / Explanation of ”Upscaling“ in The Game of Glossary.   Photo 3 / Liu Xi Xiang Bao Photo 1-3 / Nie Xiaoyi Design / Fan Haoran

It is hard to pinpoint exactly why I decided to take on the second edition of Day & Night. Perhaps it began last year, during a visit to the Red Estate in Xundian, when I saw the row of single-storey houses and courtyards at Haoran’s home and was reminded of my parents’ summer house in Boshan. Or perhaps it was simply because the previous trip had been so joyful—everyone seemed unusually relaxed and at ease. At first, I thought this sense of ease came from stepping away from the contemporary art centre. Later, I realised that was not the case; it was because everyone was already quite at ease to begin with. Around this event, I spent three weeks in Boshan: one week preparing, one week with invited friends, and one week wrapping things up. I came to see that what we call “preparation” largely consisted of what my parents have always done—working to turn a house into a “home”: cleaning the rooms, making the beds, stocking wine, meat, and vegetables, and making every corner feel comfortable. I also realised how limited my own knowledge of my hometown was. I learned about mountain plants from my mother and talked with my parents about little-known spots tucked away in the valleys. This time, I finally learned how to drive, even though I drove very slowly. While navigating the mountain roads, I kept thinking that to be a host is to hold, with generosity and expansiveness, the time that guests arriving from afar spend here. I feel very happy that my friends came to my hometown and that we were able to make a round together. My thanks to my mom, dad and my friends for their support. Text / Nie Xiaoyi @3_ears Photo 1 / Chen Xiaoyi Photo 2 / Xiao Longhua Within the German–Japanese architectural complex of the Zibo Mining Group Photo 3 / Nie Xiaoyi Into the Mountains Photo 4 / Nie Xiaoyi Xiaolonghua in the local market Photo 5 / Nie Xiaoyi Reaching the peak of Mount Lu on a clear day Photo 6 / Nie Xiaoyi The lotus planter in the Qingzhou Zhenjiao Mosque Photo 7 / Nie Xiaoyi Chinese toads that leapt into the bucket. They are everywhere in the mountains, croaking incessantly through the night. Design / Fan Haoran

Sharing an interview I did with @yao_qingmei one year ago for @leapmag ‘s special French-Chinese issue. Discussing ‘Where/what is home’ with this strong woman. It is always relaxed for me to talk with Qingmei as she is so candid and full of humour. She told a story: 我没看过伍尔夫，但是这个问题让我突然想起来电视剧《西游记》里的“女儿国”，里面女儿国的国王唱道，“悄悄问圣僧，女儿美不美”。其实，“女儿美不美”关唐僧什么事，我倒希望女儿国的女儿们一起把唐僧吃了。 Bien que je n’aie jamais lu Virginia Woolf, cela me rappelle une scène de la série télévisée chinoise des années 1980 La Pérégrination vers l’Ouest [une adaptation du roman éponyme du XVI siècle], où la reine du Royaume des Femmes chante: « Monsieur Tang Sanzang, dites-moi doucement si nous sommes belles ». En réalité, la beauté des femmes n’a rien à voir avec Tang Sanzang. Personnellement, je préférerais qu’elles dévorent ensemble la chair de Tang Sanzang. （you can be immortal if you eat Tang Sanzng） "Habiter le flux 不居" is the latest French-Chinese issue of LEAP, a reference magazine for contemporary art in China. This new issue explores the relationship between a shifting global context and contemporary creation, examines the many facets and interweavings of Franco-Chinese artistic exchanges in recent years, and sheds light on the creation of Chinese artists in an unprecedented context of social, technological and environmental upheaval. Thanks the edit by @youyiyi and @hejing_hj #38 #internationalwomensday

Returning to London with the spring tide. 🕊️ Turning over new leaves with familiar faces and new ones, too. Life is a circle, and we grow with every turn.

Day & Night Season 2 traveled to Boshan, Shandong from late August to early September 2025. This season was led by researcher and Season 1 member Nie Xiaoyi @3_ears , with support from project co-initiator, artist Chen Xiaoyi @xiaoyi_c , and curator Damien Zhang @damienzhg . Participating members also included art practitioner Huang Yuting @yutinnnng_h , and artists Lin Yulong @yulong_lin , Lillian Lijuan Liu @lijuan2046 , Wan Qing @1qr_wan , Xiao Longhua @xiaolonghuaer , and Zhang Beichen @beichenzhangphoto . Photo 3 / Lin Yulong Design / Fan Haoran

Nov 2025 as a guest/friend, moderating the opening event of exhibitions The Great Camouflage and Peng Zuqiang: Short-term Histories @rockbundartmuseum . Still I am with a lingering sense of amazement—tinged with sadness—at how one can still invoke themes like revolution, radicalness, and solidarity within the contemporary Chinese art scene. A reminder of resilience. Photo: Zhang Yupai.

I know it’s already 2026…… When Keith Wallace, editor of Yishu, wrote to me and asked if I would like to contribute to the journal, I was so happy: happy Yishu is still going on, happy I could be part of its journey. I remember in 2021, when I was discussing a potential piece with Diana Freudl, I was told the journal was going to pause—I regretted so much and felt I should pitched much earlier. As a researcher into contemporary Chinese art, Yishu the journal is a place remaining faithful and trustworthy. I also remember emailing Ken Lum, artist and another founding editor of Yishu, with some research questions, he told me some anecdotes, and the basic idea was, you need to say true words to make real discussion. It has been in my mind. Since 2024, Yishu has become a yearly publication and I contribute to the issue on non-binary and women artists working with new media. My essay “An Activist Attitude with New Media Art: From Early Video Art Curator Wu Meichun to She. Home.” traced the “new media” origin to Wu Meichun (please let’s keep the “godfather of new media” quiet), and I take some time to revisit the project I participate and co-curated a decade ago, with Mulan Community, a group of strong and beautiful immigrant women in Beijing. Part of my contribution fee goes to the community centre. 🪁 Thank you Keith for the detailed and patient editing, and taking time to call me, @zhengshengtian for starting and sustaining it, and the whole publishing team. I am among amazing contributors including @xingru_longiris @noraganli @yushilii @miao.ying.miao @yining_he_ @phyllis.zhong @juliechun.arthistorian @xin_liu_studio @ceekaylau @pitarreola @natychuk @lilin_rocket Read the pdf in my profile’s start page link. And you can read the physical copy (actually all Yishu’s past issues) in @asymmetryartorg #yishu #newmedia #activist #wumeichun #mulan

“One pink map seemed to be everywhere during Shanghai Art Week. Titled ‘Annotated Shanghai,’ the bilingual guide charmingly described the city’s art spaces and their quirks. It quickly became a cult object, with many wondering who made it.” Critic Cathy Fan @cathyfxy wrote warmly about this “pink mania” that swept through the city during the art season on @artnet , describing it as “the best navigation tool for exploring the city’s many compelling alternative spaces, especially for a visitor like me.” Indeed, Annotated Shanghai was a gift. Last November, editor You Yiyi @youyiyi , writer Nie Xiaoyi @3_ears , and designer Scene Peng @scenepeng together made the bilingual Annotated Shanghai in their leisure time, drawing on personal experience and a deep familiarity with the city’s unwritten anecdotes. This Thursday evening, Minor Space will host a sharing by Scene Peng and Nie Xiaoyi, in conversation with artist and writer Gary Zhexi Zhang @garyzhexizhang , reflecting on the making of Annotated Shanghai, the mapping of Shanghai’s art ecology, and the passion and fun in trans-disciplinary collaboration. Come to Deptford, pick up a map and join a conversation. 🎙️About the speakers Scene Peng (1997) designs (&SCENE), publishes (In Good Company Intl.), tastes (JOYFOR), listens (EGRET), lives and works in Shanghai after graduating from CSM and KABK. Nie Xiaoyi, writer, researcher and educator, one of the editors of Qilu Criticism, Curatorial Fellow of De Ying Foundation (2024–2025), tutor in Curating Contemporary Art department, Royal College of Art. She was the senior editor of ArtReview China and LEAP from 2022 to 2024. Gary Zhexi Zhang‘s work explores systemic connections between cosmology, technology and economy. He operates individually, in collaboration and within organisational frameworks. He recently edited a book of fictions, essays and interviews about finance and time, Catastrophe Time! (Strange Attractor Press, 2023).

Thanks to curator Karen Smith’s invitation, I got the opportunity to work with artist Want Peng closely on revisiting a project in 1995. Thirty years, to complete a project. 🥟 Words by Karen @karen5668smith …Three Days revisits an exercise in social ethnography that Wang Peng completed exactly thirty years ago in 1995. Carried out in two parts, in the spring of 1995 Wang Pang began by recording the condition of a pavilion on the north-west corner of the Forbidden City/Palace Museum with a camera. It may be surprising to learn today that up to the end of 1994, the pavilion had been inhabited by local Beijing residents, who were part of a community of people living along the Hucheng Moat, which surrounds the Forbidden City. Their homes were temporary “non-regulation” structures running around the moat. This included the pavilion which, as an enclosed space, had made for sizeable living quarters, home to several families. In 1994, it was decided to clean up the moat area as part of the larger plan to restore the Forbidden City, which was recognised as one of the capital’s important historic sites. In March 1995, Wang Peng successfully applied to spend three days “observing the full moon” from the pavilion ahead of the planned restoration programme. He used the opportunity to document the pavilion and the ghostly traces of human habitation that remained. Restoration work was completed in time for National Day celebrations. That same month, between October 20-22, Wang Peng returned to the pavilion again for three days to experience, and examine, the renovated structure. He also invited friends to join him there, to share their impressions of the speed and nature of change that was unfolding across the urban landscape. As the government looked forward to the time when China’s ambitions for Beijing to host to the Olympic Games would be realised, the work of redesigning and restructuring residential and commercial areas sparked what was a period of hyper-rapid (re)development for the capital. ⛺️Happy to have joined conversions, proofread, stick the pictures; hosted the panel, and borrowed the chairs… DM if you would like to learn more.

🧚🏻‍♂️OPEN CALL🧚‍♀️Gathering all this information—Shanghai’s art spaces, the Art Week’s exhibition listings, and spots for nearby food, drinks, and fun—what kind of map will Annotated Shanghai become? And how will you open it? We hope, and insist, that it be a paper sheet unfolded in your hands. If you are a gallery, café, museum, or bookstore—any public space in Shanghai—and if you’d like to become a distribution point for our FREE map, a friend of ours, and a part of this grand journey, please DM or email us by October 31st! Our inbox is: [email protected] Hold on! We would like to introduce a dear friend to you all today: the artist, Leon Eckert @loquepasa ! He has been living in Shanghai for seven years. He teaches, he wanders the streets, and he’s taken countless photos of people and places. We invited him to make the short video you’re seeing now. Leon said: “I want to thank Annotated Shanghai for the opportunity, and the citizens of this great big city for granting me access to their colorful daily activities!” And we want to thank Leon, who loves life, and thank you, for helping us spread the map! We are— Annotated Shanghai 上海艺术天书 #shanghailife #shanghaiart #artmap #shanghaiartweek #artguide

We’re a mapping studio, and we’re currently cooking up Annotated Shanghai 🗺️ This map will be a little different. It doesn’t just chart Shanghai’s streets and locations; it’s also a personal commentary and annotation of the city’s artistic landscape, brought to life by @scenepeng the mischievous, gluttonous design wizard @3_ears who prays that no soul shall ever suffer from contemporary art anymore @youyiyi the twin-yolk editor of contemporary art magazines Why are we making Annotated Shanghai? Because—well, let’s face it: it’s all getting too boring! Every November marks Shanghai’s golden art season: two art fairs competing in full swing, and this year, the Shanghai Biennale on top of it all. Museums and galleries roll out their best shows, international friends arrive in droves—sounds fancy, right? But in reality… you’re just hopping from one grand opening to another small one, sharing awkward dinners with strangers—and, worst of all, you don’t even get paid for it. But what if you had a fairy friend? She’s a hardworking art insider who knows all the gossip, ready to tell you stories, old and new, wherever you go. If you only have 2 or 3 days, she’ll circle a few spots on a map and say, “These are the places worth going.” She’s not from Shanghai, but she loves good food and good fun, so every exhibition visit becomes an excuse for coffee, rest, and wandering. And now for the big reveal! We are this fairy friend 🧚‍♀️ To bring this map from the sky to life, the fairies are now gathering all the details, big and small, about Shanghai’s contemporary art in November. If you, like us, are trying to make Shanghai lovely again—(Oh, and by the way, ever hear how people in Beijing tease Shanghai? They say: “There’s no depth here.”) and you’re organizing projects (exhibitions, events, etc.) to inject some depth, share them with our celestial inbox before 20 October at 💌 [email protected] Annotated Shanghai 上海艺术天书 Stay tuned~ #shanghailife #shanghaiart #shanghaiartweek #artguide #artmap

This map will be a little different. It doesn’t just chart Shanghai’s streets and locations; it’s also a personal commentary and annotation of the city’s artistic landscape. To bring Annotated Shanghai from the sky to life, the fairies @scenepeng @3_ears @youyiyi are now gathering all the details, big and small, about Shanghai’s contemporary art in November. If you, like us, are trying to make Shanghai lovely again—(Oh, and by the way, ever hear how people in Beijing tease Shanghai? They say: “There’s no depth here.”) and you’re organizing projects (exhibitions, events, etc.) to inject some depth, share them with our celestial inbox before 20 October at 💌 [email protected] Annotated Shanghai 上海艺术天书 Stay tuned~ #shanghailife #shanghaiart #shanghaiartweek #artguide #artmap