24 emails from Railways

This is an art project about the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the beginning of a series of projects related to roads and walking by artist Cheng Xinhao.

The Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is a narrow-gauge railway built by French colonists in the early 20th century, connecting Vietnam with Cheng Xinhao's hometown of Yunnan Province. It was built from the port city of Haiphong in Vietnam in 1900, connected to Hanoi, and then extended northwest into Yunnan to the provincial capital Kunming. The entire railway was completed in 1910 and became Yunnan's first modern road. Cheng Xinhao lived along the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway when he was a child, and after he learned that it ended at a sea, this railway carried his imagination of the ocean.

Starting from December 1, 2019, Cheng Xinhao started from Kunming and walked along the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway towards the ocean at the end of the railway. Every kilometer he walked, he picked up a piece of ballast from the railway, and every night he would give it to someone from a different corner of Yunnan. Send an email to an imaginary friend. In the end, it took him 19 days to complete the 465 kilometers of the railway in Yunnan Province. The weight of the stones on his body reached more than 20 kilograms, and he also accumulated 24 emails that he had sent.

Through these words and images left exactly a year ago, "24 Mails from the Railway" tells the story of this journey: about the railway, about the land of Yunnan - personal stories permeating the land and two East Asias The country’s colonial history is about the modernization of mountainous areas in Southeast Asia. It is also about Cheng Xinhao’s childhood memories and geographical imagination, and his connection with his hometown and this region.

Cheng Xinhao was born in Yunnan in 1985. He graduated from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Peking University in 2013 with a Ph.D. In 2015, he was shortlisted for the Three Shadows Photography Award and won the Shiseido Photography Award for "Naming a River". Currently working and living as an artist in Kunming, Yunnan.