This work examines a protest movement sparked by the government's abuse of power and its attempt to cover up a severe bullying incident. On July 22, 2025, in Jiangyou, Sichuan Province, China, a girl from a family with disabilities was forcibly dragged into an abandoned, unfinished building by several classmates and subjected to violent abuse. In the aftermath, instead of punishing the perpetrators, the authorities attempted to fabricate a "truth" for the victim's family and conceal the facts from the public.
Following the leak of the assault video on August 2, a large-scale protest erupted on August 4 as local citizens stood in solidarity with the girl. However, the government responded with violent suppression and mass arrests, successfully shifting public focus from the anti-bullying movement to the state's own display of force, effectively burying the original case.
Within the Chinese social context, I am unable to reach the individuals involved or conduct independent on-site investigations. My only recourse is to use my own artistic language to expose and express these systemic abuses of power.
She Won’t Always Grow Back
Section 1: <Existence>
The images erased by the government were made by me using temperature-sensitive printing and pasted on the four sides of the wooden house. Finally, I threw firecrackers into the house and detonated them. The images developed and vanished with the momentary high temperature
Section 2: Performance video
Description of actions:
· Place the black wooden frame on your head, circle the venue, and scrape the glass shards beneath your feet to create sound
· Write a circle of text around the perimeter of the glass shards
· Use the glass on site to pop ten balloons, causing the film to fall out of them.
· Release ten paper airplanes from your chest along the path to the wooden hut
· Ignite the final airplane to light fireworks inside the hut, illuminating thermosensitive printed images
Section 3: <10 Days>
The images erased by the government were rephotographed and put into black balloons. Then, the balloons were crushed with broken glass from the scene
