This project is about researching and filming the area of Da Zha Lan, which is a slum in Beijing.The Da Zha Lan Project is an extension of San Yuan Li (the village-in-city in Guangzhou), a project that was featured in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. Together with an upcoming project about Caoyang Xincun in Putuo District in Shanghai (a workers' community in Shanghai, 2006), it will make up a series of research and creative practice concerning urbanization and impoverished communities in cities in China.

The area of Da Zha Lan in Beijing is located in the southwestern corner of Tian' anmen Square, covering Qianmen Avenue in the east, Nan Xinhua Street in the west, Zhushikou Xi Avenue in the south and Qianmen Xi Avenue in the North and is under the jurisdiction of the Xuanwu District. The typical layout of diagonal streets in this area was formed naturally as people traveled in between the new and old capitals after the Middle Capital of Jin was destroyed and the Main Capital of Yuan was rebuilt. Unlike the neat and orderly design of hutongs in the Inner city, Da Zha Lan has a freely developed grassroots style suitable for the outer part of the city and bears witnesses to the long history of this area.

From Ming Dynasty all through Qing Dynasty, to the Nationalist Government, to Post-Liberation, the area of Da Zha Lan has always been the commercial center of Beijing, where a great number of established shops and brands have existed for hundreds of years. It has experienced the transitions from Chinese handicraft industry, to capitalist free trade, to socialist market economy, and can be deemed as the paradigm for Chinese commercial culture.

Since the 90s of last century, wide-ranging movements of urbanization in Beijing have intensified the conflicts and clashes among issues including historical preservation, restoration of dangerous and old buildings, improvement of living standards and urban development. As the city keeps on expanding towards the suburbs, the infrastructure in such an old city center as Da Zha Lan remains underdeveloped, plus the cap on the height of architecture in this region has prohibited property developers to make any constructions, it' s impossible to trade second-hand houses. As a result, the elite class goes on moving outward and the risk of the area being vacant runs high, and a great number of low-income immigrants move in from other places. Impoverishments and degenerations in this region begin to reveal themselves.

According to the Investigation of Urban Corners in Beijing published in July 2005 by Beijing Social Science Institute, the density of population in Da Zha Lan reaches 4,5000 heads per square kilometer. It' s extremely crowded and there are too many old houses in danger. The hidden alarm of fire is severe and there is inadequate supply of water and electricity. Conditions of hygiene are appalling and public security is chaotic. There is an overflow of faked products and a high number of immigrants. Their daily living expenses are less than RMB 8. Da Zha Lan area has become a typical slum.

The Da Zha Lan Project has appointed the area of Da Zha Lan as a case study, which focuses on the historical and cultural development, poverty level, social organization, street level architecture and humanist ecology in this region. We have adopted a collective working system as we recruit volunteers to participate in the research and filming, conducting workshops. We will conclude our work with a documentary, a publication and a website, which will be featured in the ZKM in Germany in May 2006.