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lanwei / 爛尾 / 2006-2012

artist statement

abortive building projects are the ‘fruits’ of
two to three decades of fruitless chase
after a future, an opportunity, desires
and dreams in a liberated society,
at a time of seemingly
limitless economic expansion.
buildings can be aborted, so can projects.
plans may be aborted. so may hopes.
ties between people could be aborted,
so could relationships.
life, i guess should not be aborted.

[P.S. i have been harbouring the concept of shooting abortive building projects
in my mind for 5 years. fortunately, on the eve of government actions to clean up
the mess, this concept finally became a reality, sparing it from being yet another
abortive attempt.]

background /
as china relaxed the restrictions and reopened her doors to foreign investments
in the 1980’s, the whole nation was thrust into a craze of buying and selling of
almost anything that had a slight hint of profit. property projects became the most
sought-after investments. in order not to lose out, people hastened to pour their
lifelong savings into real estate deals, sometimes without having even seen a brick.
with corruption prevalent and an overheated economy, problems soon abounded.
the bubble finally burst and millions of square meters of land were left unfinished.
in 1998, in hainan alone, a combined floor space of 16.3 million square meters
were aborted or left unfinished.* this wave of abortive building construction spread
across other asian cities which were also experiencing meteoric economic growth.
people in china termed these projects ‘lan wei lou’, ‘lan’ meaning ‘decaying’,
‘rotting’ while ‘wei’ is ‘the tail’, ‘the ending’. Therefore, ‘lan wei’ has in it,
more than just ‘unfinished’. for some reasons or other, it was just not possible
to complete these ‘lou’ or ‘buildings’. there were simply no solutions or closure.
in time, the concept of ‘lan wei’extends beyond building projects.
it becomes synonymous with anything that is aborted while in progress,
for reasons unknown. these photos attempt to capture the relics of this ma
‘gold rush’ and, at the same time, reflect on how,
throughout the years, ‘lan wei’ has manifested itself not only in building projects
but also in all aspects of life.

* “china’s island province mounts fight against housing bubble”. People’s daily
online, 26 september, 2005.

在社會的開放，或者經濟極速發展的背景底下；
爛尾樓正是過去兩三個年代一群活在大時代的人對
前景、機會、人心和夢想的一場搏鬥沒結果的結果。
建築會爛尾。工程會爛尾。
計劃會爛尾。希望會爛尾。
關係會爛尾。人情會爛尾。
人生。我想不應該爛尾吧。

[ P.S. 這個在腦袋不斷浮現的爛尾攝影念頭，不覺已經超過五個年頭。
幸好終於在政府收拾爛攤前在現實中實現出來，不致爛尾收場。]

背景 /
中國八十年代經濟政策對外開放改革，激發起一場全國性追捧金錢的憧憬或是夢想。
一窩蜂投資，買賣的熱潮由重點開放城市深圳散播到南中國以至全國。
人民為怕「執輸行頭」，就算連一磚一瓦還未有看過，就拿出一生積蓄投資地產樓房。
過熱的經濟文化、貪污及其他人為的問題隨之而來，不久就刺破了這巨大的泡沫，
導致數百萬平方米土地發展，半工而廢。
單算一九九八年海南這地區就有一千六百三十萬平方米 [建築樓面計算]* 之建築項目淪為爛尾。
過去二十年間，這股爛尾潮流亦擴展到其他亞洲金融急起的城市⋯
「爛尾」之攝影系列，希望從爛尾樓房出發，穿梭生活中不同的人民爛尾故事，
反照我對近代中國一些人和事，以致生命的一些着眼，一些看法。

* 節錄自人民日報網二零零五年九月廿六日。

category

photography

award

• 2013 / hkda global design awards / photography - non-commercial / silver
• 2013 / hkda global design awards / photography - non-commercial / hong kong best
• 2009 / hkda asia design awards / photography / gold

year

2012