Story of Ürümqi Roadsign; A Joint Action
On November 24, 2022, a high-rise building in Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, caught fire. At least ten people died. All the fire exits had been sealed and wired shut by local administrations determined to enforce the 'zero-covid policy' passed down from the highest leadership. All the deceased were Uyghurs.
Two days later, people in Shanghai protested on Ürümqi Middle Road to mourn the victims of the Ürümqi fire and voice their opposition to the 'zero-covid policy,' which had led to numerous bureaucratic ironies and tragedies over the past three years.
The night of November 26, after heard the protest in Shanghai and how the police cleared the site and beat the protesters , I made this poster with a download link that people could use to make an actual size Ürümqi roadsign with their home printer. The original pinyin spelling on the road signs was changed to the Uyghur script Ürümqi, with the date 2022-1126, and the open-source file includes different editable formats to fit various purposes.
In the next 3 days, in hundreds of cities, the Shanghai protest sparked echoes in the diaspora Chinese community all over the world. And this roadsign popped up in various social media platforms and databases, and roadsigns made by this file appeared in protest images and footage from NYC, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Cologne, Austin, Guangzhou, and numerous other unrecognizable locations. These signs were made and photos taken by friends I didn't know.
On December 7, China abandoned the zero-covid policy and arrested protestors in mainland China who had been identified through street cameras. Protest information vanished from the internet, and people – except for the Uyghurs and those still jailed – returned to their everyday lives.
The poster, downloadable digital file, 2am November 27 Beijing time, 2022Shenyang, the first roadsign made by this file, a few hours after the protest in Shanghai, by friends, 5 am November 27, 2022After the November 26 protest, the Shanghai government censored the news, blocked the area, and took off the original roadsign, Afternoon November 27, 2022Wuhan, The living room of one of the few unjailed human rights lawyers in China. Image from WeChat, From a friend. November 27, 2022Unrecognizable city, Image from the Internet, November 27, 2022John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Found Image @JHnewshouse, November 28, 2022Tiananmen Memorial, Boston, Found Image @GettyImage and @digboston, Nov 30, 2022Embassy of China, London, Instagram@china_deviants, November 29, 2022Paris, Image from the Internet, November 28-30, 2022University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, Found Image on Instagram, November 28-30, 2022Hong Kong, Found Image on YouTube @CNA, November 28, 2022 The Chinese embassy in Tokyo, Found Image @gettyimages, November 28, 2022Wageningen, people put this file into other platforms and made new links and posters, Unknown dateSquare de la Bastille, Found Image on Twitter, November 28-30, 2022Chinese embassy in Frankfurt, Found Image online, November 28, 2022Washington DC, ”Someone is shouting--Don't forget”, Found Image on Twitter @wangqingpeng1, November 28, 2022Unrecognizable city, Image from the Internet, November 27-December 2, 2022London, Screenshot from a video on the internet, December 2, 2022Leiden, Found Image from Instagram @citizendailycn, November 29, 2022an unknown North American City, Found Image from a Chatgroup, December 3, 2022Ithaca, New York, Found Image from Instagram@Northern_square, November 28-30, 2022Chapel Hill, Image from Signal - an encrypted group chat, December 4, 2022Syracuse, NY, Found Image @ NCC News House, November 29, 2022New York City, Found Image @ Washington Square News, November 29, 2022Mankato, MN, Image from a friend via Signal, “We're getting snow here, and people keep coming up and wiping the snow off the sign.”, November 28-30, 2022Austin, Texas, Found Image from Instagram message, November 29, 2022Amsterdam, Image from a friend who saw it online, Nov 28, 2022New Haven, Connecticut, Found Image from Instagram@Northern_square, November 29, 2022An anonymous city, Image from a friend, December 2022Found Image online, 2023Santa Barbara, CA, Found Image on Instagram @烛光精选-an Archive of Mourning, an Instagram channel that was created to archive this movement, January 2023Oxford, Found Image on Instagram @烛光精选- an Archive of Mourning, January 2023Berlin, An International Human Rights Day, Found Image online, March 2023
Exhibition View, AFTERMATH , WORTHLESS Studios, Brooklyn, NY, August 2023
The Story of Ürümqi Roadsign zine,
Practice Gallery, Philadelphia, and other collective spaces
May 2024
an community kitchen of Burmese exiles,
Mae Sot, Thailand, Feb 2024