Two years later, we brought our cameras back to the Qingshui River. The festival was as vivid as ever, yet what remained on film often happened beside the spectacle: a hand passing water on the bank, an old song rising inside a family hall, the stitches of a market embroidery, and the river becoming suddenly quiet before a dragon boat entered the water.
Featured Work
2025 Hmong Village Field Vlog
Field film collection｜Shidong, 2025
The Vlog gathers field footage and the making of a series of student shorts. Its camera moves through the dragon-boat festival, Shidong market, an embroidery household, and a family hall; it also follows students into local shops, a benefit sale, and preparations for a Hmong fashion show.
Rather than reporting the itinerary day by day, the film reorganises the experience around people and detail: women’s labour within a festival, memory carried through craft, exchange and encounter at the market, order held within ritual, and the gradual movement of outside observers towards participation and collaboration.
Suggested display: main Vlog player｜index of five student works｜dragon boats and riverbank｜market and craft｜Yuan Ye benefit sale｜Hmong fashion show
Five Cameras, Five Ways into the Field
Through the Mist｜Zhao Ziqing / Miya
Miya did not follow the most spectacular boats on the river. She stayed with the women on shore as they arranged flowers, passed water, and fastened safety ropes, supporting the festival amid drums and constant movement.
The camera then entered an embroidery household. A mother and daughter sat side by side, flower-and-bird motifs joining past and present through their stitches. At night, an old song filled the family hall. “Eyes on the shore, skill in the hand, and soul in the song” became the film’s thread, returning culture from the display case to labour, family, and memory across generations.
Cultural Observation Shorts｜Shen Lingshan / Angel
Angel’s two films shift continually between settings. At the market, stalls, goods, bargaining, and passing crowds form the texture of ordinary village life. In paper cutting, the story of Butterfly Mother and the Twelve Eggs preserves an imagination of how life began.
The camera also moves among ceremonial dress, dragon boats, and ancient song. A valuable garment embodies years of family labour, while each village boat keeps its identity through calls, drum patterns, and hull motifs. In the family hall at dusk, songs of migration and ancestry allow histories never written down to remain audible.
Shidong Market and Motif Studies｜Sun Minghe / Aaron
At daybreak, stalls unfold one after another. People choose, talk, and bargain. Goods are exchanged, but the market also allows residents from surrounding villages to meet again.
Aaron does not stop with the crowd. He moves closer to dragon and bird forms on paper, the density of stitches, the tying of a belt, and the layering of silver. Pattern, technique, and ways of wearing connect, and a local aesthetic slowly appears beyond the noise.
The Dragon Boat Launching Rite｜Lü Wendi / Wendy
Wendy follows the sequence of invocation, launching, and entering the water. Red pigment touches the dragon’s eyes; rice liquor is poured into the river; knots and herb bundles on the head are carefully arranged. Only when the drums sound does the boat enter the Qingshui.
The film moves between exuberance and quiet. Before the race begins, the festival is already under way. Each action before launch connects spirit, river, village cooperation, and an order held in common.
From Observation to Co-creation｜Tang Yuqi / Lucien
Lucien records a change in the students’ position. From visiting tea shops, steamed-bun shops, and embroidery stores, to selling pasta to raise funds for an air conditioner at Yuan Ye Reading Room, and finally preparing a Hmong fashion show with residents, the camera moves step by step from “seeing” towards “taking part”.
When old embroidery, new work, silver, and clothing from different generations return to a rural runway, tradition is no longer an object stored away. It re-enters public space and is seen together by residents, students, and visitors.
The Story Behind the Vlog
The Story Was Not Waiting in Advance
Before entering the villages, the students discussed subjects, learned interview and filming methods, and tried to answer a deceptively simple question: what did they genuinely want to record?
Once in the field, that question kept changing. Festivals, people, and stories did not appear according to schedule, and many important moments arose from chance encounters. The students had to adjust as they moved—deciding what deserved to remain, what was merely passing, and which sounds or images could actually bring an audience into a story.
The Camera Learned to Look Beside the Spectacle
At the dragon-boat festival, the easiest image was the race itself; Miya noticed the labour of women on shore. At the market, crowds and goods were most visible; Aaron moved closer to paper forms, stitches, belts, and silver. Faced with a launching rite, Wendy did not simply wait for the boat to enter the river, but began with invocation and preparation.
Together, these choices changed the way the Vlog looks. The camera stopped following only “the most exciting image” and began searching beside the spectacle for the places where culture was actually taking place.
A Second Fieldwork in the Edit
Back in the editing room, the students watched a vast amount of footage again. Scattered images did not automatically become a story. Each maker had to decide where to begin, which interviews to retain, how music and environmental sound should enter, and how to present another person’s life without changing the meaning of what had been said.
Editing forced everyone to ask again: what had they actually seen? Which judgements came from the field, and which belonged only to an outsider’s first imagination? Documentary became not merely a technical exercise, but a way of learning through fieldwork.
The camera made us look more closely; the interview taught us to listen; and the edit made us accept responsibility for how a story is told.
What the Work Hopes to Leave Behind
These images record festivals, craft, family life, local economies, and community in Shidong. They also preserve the students’ first observations and reflections as they entered these cultural settings.
What remains is more than the memory of a programme. It is evidence of how culture lives within labour, relationships, and ordinary life—and of how a group of young makers gradually moved from outside spectators to listeners, participants, and collaborators.