Summary

In the mid-1990s, the Yuanmingyuan Artist Village dissolved, and artists resettled in Songzhuang's Xiaopu Village in the eastern suburbs of Beijing. The affordable living conditions and relatively free creative environment attracted independent artists from all over China. They arrived with utopian dreams and a thirst for artistic freedom, surviving and creating in the name of art, and developing a unique way of life. Over time, more flocked to the area, leading to the emergence of related industries and small businesses. Streets, shops, taverns, artist studios, and village residences formed a complex network. Over the course of more than a decade, Xiaopu Village transformed from a handful of artists to China's largest art community, with a population of over ten thousand. The cohabitation and interactions with indigenous peoples, local government, and commercial capital, all contributed to Songzhuang's distinctive artistic ecology and made it a microcosm of China's transitional era.