{"id":162,"date":"2018-10-07T14:44:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T14:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/issue-4\/?p=162"},"modified":"2024-05-13T16:18:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T16:18:33","slug":"far-from-home-far-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/issue-4\/far-from-home-far-from-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Far From Home, Far From Here: Riverbooks I & II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preface<\/h4>\n

What connects us? Rivers, bridges, minds, emotion, love, home\u2014stories connect us. Humankind chose to live by the water a long time ago. 70% of the world\u2019s population lives on coastal plains1<\/a>, 11 of the 15 biggest cities stand on a coastline or river estuary2<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Water also cuts channels, creates boundaries, divides territories to reshape islands, cities, countries, continents. Rivers tear minerals from rock and add water to the oceans. <\/span>These rivers are like the veins of a body, the branches of a tree, the vessels of the Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“These rivers are like the veins of a body, the branches of a tree, the vessels of the of the Earth”<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Agriculture was the first great revolution that turned our history on end and gave birth to cities and civilizations. Globalization made the migration of populations much easier. The internet makes communications much more convenient. Urbanization makes cities visually and culturally similar. Most people in my generation like the \u201cnomadic\u201d lifestyle. The new nomadic lifestyle, from neighborhood to neighborhood, from this side of a river to another, from this hemisphere of the earth to the other. How do we define home?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am far from home, but I am also far from here.\u201d I remember hearing this once. People drift and move, just like water, physically and emotionally.<\/span><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/span><\/h4>\n

River Book I & II <\/span><\/i>is a study of geographical boundaries presented as two bar-shaped hand drawn books. My research starts with the Yellow River in China, where my hometown is located, and includes other rivers that I\u2019ve lived alongside \u2014 including those in Chongqing, Shanghai, and New York. The result is a mix of my history with marked scenery and landmarks of personal significance.<\/span><\/p>\n

River Book I & II<\/span><\/i> maps territories of both reality and my imagination. It is boundless, yet intimate. It is my story, but<\/span> maybe in my story, you can recognize your own.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 1, Yellow River\u00a0<\/strong>The Yellow River is considered to be the mother river of China. It has another name, \u201cHanging River\u201d, because the riverbed is much higher than the plain.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 2, Chongqing<\/strong> Two rivers cross in Chongqing, the Jiangling River and the Long River. The center is built on a huge island, similar to Hong Kong Island(Gang Dao) in Hong Kong and Manhattan in New York.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 3, Canal Scene<\/strong> Nature gave us rivers, but not enough of them. People created canals for different purposes, but mostly motivated by economics to carry goods and deliver culture.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 4, Beijing<\/strong> Beijing City was originally surrounded by a round moat, called \u201cHu Cheng River\u201d, which means ‘protecting the forbidden city’.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 5, Market Scene<\/strong> Some of the earliest and primitive communications\u00a0 happened in markets, where people exchange their merchandise.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 6, Beijing Moat<\/strong> Beijing Moat (Hu Cheng) River connects to Brooklyn<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"If<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 7<\/strong>\u00a0Bridges Scene Bridges artificially connect ravines.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 8, ‘Pop-Up’ Page, Mountain Scene<\/strong> Two pop-up pages with illustrations representing the Grand Teton Mountains (above) in U.S.A. and the Yellow Mountains in China (below).<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 9, Hudson River Scene<\/strong> Away from the world: A train goes up along the Hudson River; there is a way to an idyllic land.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 10, Missouri River and Mississippi River <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), \u201cThe Five Lakes\u201d of the United States and China<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 12, Submarine Internet Cable Map<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 13, No-Name Rivers<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 14, The Bund of Shanghai Connects with Highway No.1, California<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"River

River Book I(Top), River Book II(Bottom), Page 15, The origins of the Yellow River and the origin of the Mississippi.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preface What connects us? Rivers, bridges, minds, emotion, love, home\u2014stories connect us. Humankind chose to live by the water a long time ago. 70% of the world\u2019s population lives on coastal plains1, 11 of the 15 biggest cities stand on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/2354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/adjacent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}