Xiaoxiao Xu: Watering My Horse by a Spring at the Foot of the Long Wall

Xiaoxiao Xu followed and photographed the lives of the people along the foot of the Great Wall of China. The long journey began in the spring of 2017 and continued until the spring of 2018 resulting in a road trip of 25,000 kilometers. Contrary to what many people think, the Chinese wall is not a single continuous construction, but rather a collection of walls and towers built during various Chinese dynasties. In her series Watering My Horse by a Spring at the Foot of the Long Wall (published as a photobook in 2020), Xu follows the section of the wall from the Ming dynasty and takes us to the ruins of the older parts. Despite the decline, there is a lively relationship with the wall among the local population that honour and protect the wall.

As Xu was travelling and documenting the everlasting and continuous construction, she discovered the impact of fast-growing China on this historic site. What does the wall reflect today? Which elements have disappeared and which remnants have survived? She realised that the villages at the foot of the Great Wall are some of the last places where people still live according to old traditions, but here too, these are gradually disappearing. Her work focuses on the visual transformation of this process. Through photographs documenting people’s lives, rites, environments and artifacts, including records of historical anecdotes, mythological stories and folk tales, she tries to catch a glimpse of the past and the different cultures, identities and lives inhabiting the spaces along the wall.