@609 Xinhua Road
Cheng Tao (1975-2025)
«Poems», 2019
«Poems», 2019
In memory of Cheng Tao, two poems from the book "Imago Ludens," published in 2018 by DeYi Studio and Shi Yfan for Xinchang Culture Development Co. Ltd., with photographs by François Trézin.
Cheng Tao created an XAS billboard in July 2022.
Cheng Tao created an XAS billboard in July 2022.
@387 Xinhua Road
Wendy Wang
«Two Poems for the Oriental Magpie-Robins», 2025
«Two Poems for the Oriental Magpie-Robins», 2025
Since moving to Xinhua Road this year, some birds have begun visiting my window and quietly entered my life.
In the poems I once wrote, birds rarely had names. They were not magpie-robins or light-vented bulbuls, but the shadows of words like loneliness, freedom, lightness, hope, and mystery. They were projections of feeling, not living creatures.
When I truly began to see them, I realized they each have their own species, temperament, colors, rhythms, and small everyday lives. They are no longer symbols of my emotions, but beings with their own time and destiny—strange neighbors who share this world with me. To write poetry is to let the gaze become less intrusive, and to learn how to coexist with all living things.
In the poems I once wrote, birds rarely had names. They were not magpie-robins or light-vented bulbuls, but the shadows of words like loneliness, freedom, lightness, hope, and mystery. They were projections of feeling, not living creatures.
When I truly began to see them, I realized they each have their own species, temperament, colors, rhythms, and small everyday lives. They are no longer symbols of my emotions, but beings with their own time and destiny—strange neighbors who share this world with me. To write poetry is to let the gaze become less intrusive, and to learn how to coexist with all living things.
@602 Dingxi Road
Élodie Lecat
«The fu of the flute» (excerpt)», 2025
«The fu of the flute» (excerpt)», 2025
For several years, alongside my artistic practice, I had the pleasure of devoting myself to the study of Chinese and classical literature.
For XAS, it seemed natural to me to propose an excerpt from one of the poems by the scholar Song Yu 宋玉 (319 - 298 BCE), who is believed to have lived during the Warring States period. This fu had never been translated into French before.
The richness of the fu lies mainly in its often extraordinary long passages, in which a multitude of images and references to history, mythology, canonical books, and philosophy intertwine, overlap, and intersect in a very particular rhythm.
The use of numerous rhetorical devices and the constant use of multiple allusions and quotations allow the fu to magnify the subjects taken as themes in the poems and to construct images that contain elements that seduce, reassure, and captivate the listener.
For XAS, it seemed natural to me to propose an excerpt from one of the poems by the scholar Song Yu 宋玉 (319 - 298 BCE), who is believed to have lived during the Warring States period. This fu had never been translated into French before.
The richness of the fu lies mainly in its often extraordinary long passages, in which a multitude of images and references to history, mythology, canonical books, and philosophy intertwine, overlap, and intersect in a very particular rhythm.
The use of numerous rhetorical devices and the constant use of multiple allusions and quotations allow the fu to magnify the subjects taken as themes in the poems and to construct images that contain elements that seduce, reassure, and captivate the listener.