Cultural Research & Public Design / 文化研究与公共设计
In my second year at Parsons, I began to ask myself: What am I truly trying to learn from the discipline of design? What questions do I genuinely want to explore?
Drawing from my own personal history, I turned my focus toward a group I refer to as the “Millennial Nomads”—a generation who grew up during China’s era of radical societal transformation and later migrated abroad in their adolescence. These individuals witnessed a rupture in cultural continuity following the collapse of the danwei (work-unit) system, and have since navigated the complexities of adapting and reconstructing identity within fluid, multicultural environments.
I started with a core question: When a culture vanishes from its place of origin, can it take root again—elsewhere—through the migration of collective memory?
What I am investigating is whether memory, through everyday rituals, documentation, and spatial participation, can do more than preserve the past—whether it can regenerate meaningful “place” across cultures and in foreign lands. In other words, can a lost culture find new life through the migration and reassembly of shared memory?
在帕森斯的第二年 我开始思考我真正试图从设计这门学科中学到什么？我真正想要研究的问题是什么
基于我自身的成长经历，我将视线聚焦在“千禧年游牧者”这一群体上。即在中国社会剧烈转型时期成长、后于青少年时期移居海外的一代人。他们在幼时经历了单位制崩解后的文化断裂，而后又在流动的多元文化中不断适应与重构身份。
我试图从一个问题出发：当一种文化在原生土地上消失，它是否能在异地通过集体记忆重新生根？我关注的是，记忆是否能透过日常的行为、记录与空间参与，不只是保存过去，在跨文化的异乡重新生成一个有意义的“场所”。即一种消逝的文化，是否通过集体记忆的迁移能在他处重新生根？
Interview with Millennial Nomads
与千禧游牧者们的对谈
Interview with Millennial Nomads / “Chosen Hometown”
与千禧游牧者们的对谈 / ”自选故乡“ 【B站链接】
During the winter break and the beginning of the semester, I conducted a small-scale social research project, interviewing eight “nomads,” each for approximately two hours. Some of the interviewees were close friends, while others were strangers who reached out to me after learning about the project through social media and expressed a desire to participate.
The conversations centered around themes of belonging, memory, and spatial connection. Rather than following a fixed set of questions, each interview unfolded organically—guided by the participants’ personal experiences and gradually evolving into reflections on millennial culture and the complexities of belonging in a foreign land.
在寒假与新学期初期，我开展了一项小型社会研究，采访了八位“游牧者”，每次访谈时长约两小时。受访者中既有我熟识的朋友，也有通过社交媒体了解项目后主动联系我、表达参与意愿的陌生人。
访谈围绕“归属感”、“记忆”与“空间连结”等主题展开。对话内容并未设置严格的提问顺序，而是从受访者的个人经历出发，自然延展至他们对“千禧年文化”与“异国归属”的理解与思考。
Constellation Diagram
概念星系图
Interview with Millennial Nomads / “Displacement & Dreamcore”
与千禧游牧者们的对谈 / ”离散与梦核“ 【B站链接】
Unlike earlier generations of Chinese immigrants—who often relied on replicating familiar spaces to adapt to foreign environments—millennial nomads are less interested in transplanting their native culture wholesale. Instead, they gravitate toward specific cultural anchor points, through which they actively construct a sense of identity and spatial belonging amidst constant movement.
Their prolonged experience of migration across different environments has cultivated a strong sense of agency. Rather than passively assimilating, they seek out connections across cultures, recombine memories, and generate new forms of “lived space.”
Within this context, I chose Metrograph as the site of my design intervention. Located in New York’s Chinatown, Metrograph is a multi-functional cultural venue converted from an old warehouse. It houses an independent cinema, bookstore, salon, and restaurant. Deeply influenced by the local Chinese community, Metrograph has long curated and screened Chinese-language films—many of which were once banned or poorly preserved in China, now rediscovered and reintroduced to the public. The cinema frequently hosts in-person salons and talks featuring renowned Chinese-language filmmakers.
Interviews with fellow nomads revealed that Metrograph has become a meaningful and recurring space in their everyday lives in New York—a space of resonance, familiarity, and cultural continuity. This is true for me as well.
有别于老一辈以“复制熟悉空间”为主要策略的华人移民，千禧一代的“游牧者”并不满足于将原生文化照搬进异国环境。他们更倾向于依托具体的文化锚点，在流动中主动建构身份认同与空间归属。
长期迁徙于不同环境的经历，使“游牧者”展现出更强的能动性——他们不再被动适应异地，而是在多个文化间主动寻找连接、重组记忆，并生成新的“生活场所”。
在这样的背景下，我选择以 Metrograph 作为我的设计介入点。它位于纽约唐人街，由旧仓库改建而成，是一家集合独立影院、书店、沙龙与餐厅于一体的复合型文化空间。受华人社区深远影响，Metrograph 长期策划并播放华语电影，很多在国内被禁或未能妥善保存的电影都在此重见天日，院方也经常邀请知名华语导演在此举办线下沙龙活动。我与游牧者们的访谈也揭示了Metrograph已经成为很多在纽约生活的游牧者们日常生活中的一个重要场所。（也包括我自己）
Metrograph Cinema & Programming Brochure
Metrograph 影院以及排片手册
Chinese Films Programmed in Metrograph
Metrograph 播放的华语电影
Interview with Millennial Nomads / “Metrograph NYC”
与千禧游牧者们的对谈 / ”Metrograph 影院“ 【B站链接】
Building on these observations and reflections, I began to develop a design project aimed at capturing the spatial transformation of Metrograph—from a neutral “space” into a meaningful “place” for millennial nomads—through the language of design. My intention was to translate abstract notions such as memory and the flow of time into spatial experiences with material presence and user interactivity.
I intend to render these intangible ideas tangible—mediated by both materials and embodied participation. This approach seeks to dissolve the binary between quantifiable spatial data and the sensory, emotional dimensions of spatial experience, while also interrogating the role of collective memory in transforming a “space” into a “place.”
基于这些观察与思考，我开始构思一个设计项目，试图将 Metrograph 逐渐转变为“游牧者场所”的空间演化过程，以设计语言记录下来。我希望将“记忆”与“时间流动”这些抽象概念，转化为具有材料性与交互性的空间体验。
我尝试通过材质与使用者之间的互动，将抽象的情感记忆与时间感具象化。这样的设计策略，试图打破可量化空间数据与感官—情绪维度之间的二元对立，同时也重新审视集体记忆在“空间”转化为“场所”过程中所扮演的角色。
This project explores how culture can be reactivated through migration and preserved through spatial means.I installed five temporary pavilions across different urban nodes: the eastern waterfront of Jersey City, the area around Columbia University, the western edge of Long Island City, Hoboken, and the corridor stretching from the Korean community to Hudson Yards. These locations reflect the everyday trajectories of millennial nomads in the New York metropolitan area—where they study, work, commute, and live.
However, I did not want the pavilions to exist as arbitrary, placeless installations. Instead, I aimed to ground each one in a meaningful relationship with its site. To achieve this, I chose a pre-existing tree at each location as the spatial anchor around which the pavilion was designed. The tree, as a living marker of time and place, ensures that the pavilion is not an isolated or foreign object. Rather, it becomes part of the evolving landscape—a structure that engages with the environment, evokes local memory, and reflects the passage of time through its coexistence with nature.
这个项目旨在探讨文化如何在迁移中被重新激活，并通过空间的方式被保存下来。于是，我在五个城市节点设立了临时性的 Pavilion，分别位于：Jersey City 东岸、哥伦比亚大学周边、Long Island City 西侧、Hoboken，以及从韩裔社区延伸至 Hudson Yards 的一带。这些地点覆盖了“千禧游牧者”在纽约都会区的日常轨迹——学习、工作、通勤与生活的主要区域。
然而，我并不希望这些 Pavilion 只是随机落地的临时装置，而是希望它们能够与具体的城市场所建立真实而有机的关系。为此，我在每一个地点都选择了一棵已经存在的大树，围绕它进行空间组织与设计。树木既是地景的一部分，也承载着时间的沉积，它的存在使 Pavilion 不再是与场所割裂的异物，而是能够在生长性的结构中，与环境产生连接、回应在地性与记忆的媒介。
Site Selection
选址示意图
Sketch Design
草图设计
Functionally, I reimagined the movie ticket as a ceremonial object—one that serves as a point of connection between people and space. By purchasing and preserving their tickets, nomadic viewers are not only participating in a screening but also inscribing their presence into Metrograph’s evolving identity. The ticket thus becomes a form of intentional intervention—marking how this cinema gradually transforms into a cultural anchor through repeated use and memory.
在空间功能上，我将电影票视为一种富有仪式感的媒介，并尝试将其转化为人与空间之间的连接点。通过购票与保留票根这一日常行为，游牧者们不仅参与了一场放映，也在不知不觉中留下了他们对 Metrograph 的印记。电影票因此成为一种具有“人为干预”性质的载体，用以见证时间流逝中，观者如何反向将这座影院转化为自身的文化锚点。
Functional Diagram
流程图表
Materially, I used oxidizable copper and translucent fabric to capture the passage of time and human interaction. Through the touch of fingers, the fall of rain, and the act of affixing tickets, natural traces of rust begin to form. These marks—along with the remnants of tickets—serve as tactile evidence that someone once lingered here. It’s a way for time and the body to co-author memory.
Structurally, the installation combines lightweight timber framing with rotatable copper panels, forming a semi-open, interactive street space. It functions both as an exhibition and a platform for audience messages and community dialogue. This hybrid typology intentionally blurs the boundary between street furniture and public architecture—echoing the fluid, transient nature of nomadic life.
在材料选择上，我使用了易氧化的铜材与透明布料。人们的手指触碰、雨水的浸润，以及贴票的行为，都会在铜面上留下自然生成的锈蚀痕迹。这是一种由时间与身体共同书写记忆的方式，而这些锈迹与残留的影票，正是他们曾经在此停留过的物理证据。
结构上，我采用轻型木构与可翻转的铜板相结合，构建出一个半开放、可交互的街头空间。它既具有展览的功能，也提供观众留言、社群交流的可能。这种设计策略，模糊了街头家具与公共建筑之间的界限，回应了游牧者流动而开放的生活方式。
Sketch Design
草图设计
Copper Etching Experiment
铜板锈蚀实验
Since Metrograph does not provide physical movie tickets, I designed and produced customized printed tickets and posters as interactive media connecting people and space. In this system, audience-submitted danmaku-style reviews are not only projected onto the pavilion’s canopy as a visual archive, but are also randomly printed on the next physical ticket issued for the same film—offering a tangible thread between viewers across time.
Ultimately, these tickets may either be mailed back to the original viewer a year later, triggering a moment of retrospective memory, or they may be left behind—intentionally affixed to the pavilion’s copper panels. As they weather and oxidize, they become part of the physical record of the space. This cyclical process allows memory to circulate, accumulate, and embed itself materially into the public realm.
由于 Metrograph 影院本身并不提供实体电影票，我特别设计并制作了专属的实体影票与海报，作为人与空间之间的互动媒介。在我的设计中，观众所留下的弹幕式影评不仅会被实时投影到 Pavilion 的顶棚，形成一层视觉化的记忆档案，还会被系统随机印刷在下一张同一部电影的实体影票上，传递给下一位观影者。
最终，这些实体影票可能会在一年后被邮寄回观众手中，唤起记忆中的一段时光；也可能被观众主动留在 Pavilion 的铜板表面，通过贴附、风化与锈蚀，成为时光在空间中的痕迹。这种循环机制，使记忆不仅得以流转与传递，也以物质方式被铭刻在公共空间之中。
Designed Tickets & Sheer Print Poster
票根 & 透纱打印电影海报
Layout Plan
平面图
Four Season Dynamic Elevation
动态四季立面图
Pavilion Perspective
票亭效果图
Metrograph Lobby Exhibition Perspective
Metrograph 展览效果图