Hangzhou Boatmen Oral History Archive
This archive weaves together oral histories, geospatial paths, and boatmen’s folk songs along the Qiantang River (from Dongzhou Port to Wenyan Dock). It serves as a visual chronicle of the boatmen’s world, documenting the shifting tides of their trade against the backdrop of a modernizing city.
Here, you’ll find an interactive map of ships’ trails along the Qiantang riverside, interviews of workers’ changing livelihoods & migration, and a photo exhibition of existing forms of water transport and vessel types.
Click on an image below to visit its corresponding page! :)
01 - Interactive Map of Ferrymen's Trails
This route follows the Qiantang River waterway, tracing sites central to Hangzhou’s river transport history.
02 - Interviews & Writing on Ferrymen, Boatmen, and Shipwives
The interview excerpts, articles, and poems featured below originate from field interviews & ethnographic notes collected after talking with ferrymen, fishermen, and shipwives at Dongzhou Port -- Wenyan Ferry. With the interviewees’ consent, I have adapted fragments of their speech, memories, and songs into documentary & artistic forms that intertwine testimony and imagination.
03 - Gallery Exhibition
The gallery displays here photos taken at six of the field sites I visited during my research, using drone and camera footage to showcase the existing forms of water transport and vessel types along the Qiantang River.