From our first journey into Taijiang in 2022 to the riverbanks, classrooms, and basketball courts of 2025, we kept returning to Hewan. What follows is not a sequence of programme reports, but a record of things that actually happened: the landscape beyond a train window, an unplanned departure after dinner, a sentence we failed to understand, the call that sent a dragon boat into the river, and a concrete court suddenly erupting in cheers.
These stories grow out of what we saw, joined, and recorded together. They retain the voice of the original field notes while recognising that every visit revealed only part of a much larger life.
2022｜First Encounters in Taijiang →
A train, old songs, dragon boats on the Bala River, the words “I want to leave,” and a conversation made possible through translation.
2023｜The Hmong Sisters’ Festival by the Qingshui River→
Nine days of fieldwork, moving from long tables, home visits, and markets into ceremonial dress, drumming, mud, and old songs beneath a night sky.
Beyond a one-car-wide mountain road: bamboo, indigo, an unfinished embroidery panel, basketball after dark, and the small sounds of village life.
2025｜The River’s Annual Waves and Songs→
A dragon boat in Xiaohe, a small fish returned to the river, fruit DNA in a test tube, and the Shidong BA court we finally stepped onto ourselves.