FROM COLONIAL MODERNITY TO POSTSOCIALISM: CHENG XINHAO’S ENCOUNTERS ON THE KUNMING–HAIPHONG RAILWAY

Abstract

In the modern history of Yunnan, a landlocked province in the southwest of China, the Kunming — Haiphong Railway profoundly shaped its geographic, political, and socioeconomic landscapes. Yunnan based artist Cheng Xinhao’s recent art and research projects To the Ocean investigates modernity and (post)coloniality of Yunnan through intellectual reflections on the history of the Kunming — Haiphong Railway, bodily experience with the current railroad, and spiritual conversations with himself about childhood memories and geographical imaginations. By analyzing Cheng’s visual works and writings in the project To the Ocean, this essay focuses on Cheng’s three encounters on the Kunming — Haiphong Railway — the Wujiazhai Railway Bridge, Bisezhai Station, and China-Vietnam Railway Bridge — to elaborate the iterative power of colonial modernity, socialist revolution, and postsocialism in shaping the landscapes of the Tonkin — Yunnan cross-border area.