In 2015, the Chinese government designated the village of Zhang Yan, on the western outskirts of Shanghai, as a pilot site for revitalizing the country’s rural areas. Last year saw the completion of a centerpiece of that initiative: the Zhang Yan Cultural Museum, a complex that was a pilot project for its Shenzhen-based designer, Ju Bin, as well.
Dating to the Tang dynasty (618–907 C.E.), Zhang Yan was once a prosperous trading hub, sitting on a bend in the Zhangyan Jin River. Having long ago lost its commercial importance, the village’s location on what’s now the edge of Shanghai made it a convenient testing ground for rethinking China’s yawning rural-urban divide.
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