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This project explores contemporary life and societal landscapes through newly established mediums, distances, and perspectives. Cars, as a defining symbol of China's modernization, have long influenced and reflected shifts in individual lifestyles and broader societal transformations. In recent years, with the rapid growth of China’s green technology sector and the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, a new cultural marker of modernization has emerged.

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While these advancements have enhanced mobility, they have also shaped new rhythms of daily life. This evolving pace of movement and transition serves as a lens through which contemporary China is observed and interpreted.

 

The film’s title, Jianshe Road, is derived from one of the most commonly named roads across China. The word “Jianshe” (建设), meaning “construction,” holds deep cultural, historical, and political significance. Many roads bearing this name were built in the decades following the founding of the People’s Republic of China, aligning with the nation’s early Five-Year Plans. The name itself embodies a vision of progress, infrastructure, and the ambitions of a developing society.

By capturing footage recorded along various roads, the project reexamines and reinterprets the symbolic essence of Jianshe Road in today’s context. Through movement, landscapes, and encounters along these paths, the film reflects on the interconnected lives, cultures, and infrastructures that continue to shape and be shaped by this ever-evolving notion of “construction.”

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