The complete archive.

Independent Fieldwork Independent Fieldwork - Nanchang Independent Fieldwork - Huangshan Independent Fieldwork - Hainan Independent Fieldwork - Hechi Independent Fieldwork - Liuzhou Independent Fieldwork - Nanjing Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Collector The Most Rare Chinese Embroidered Album, circa 1750 Collect ancient ethnic manuscripts from Southeast Asia Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Interpreter Research on variant chinese character&ethnic character Interpret and translate ethnic manuscripts Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Independent Fieldwork-Nanchang Last Page A Collector of Everything Every book here, I’ve turned through myself. In Nanchang, at the foot of the Tengwang Pavilion, I stepped into a second-hand bookstore and spent an hour and a half with its owner—an hour of which was pure conversation. Most of his books came from libraries cleared during university mergers. “I collected more than fifty thousand volumes,” he said, then added with a smile, “Some other sources… better left unsaid.” For more than thirty years, he has pursued this passion, not as a livelihood but as a calling. When I asked him why, he paused, thought carefully, and replied: “It builds a bridge—for young people like you, between past days and present life.” Yet I believe the truer answer is simpler: he genuinely loves books, and that love is the origin of it all. “Every book here, I’ve turned through myself,” he explained. “Only those that are fine to read do I place on the shelves.” Behind the casual words lies painstaking care. He recommended to me Proof of the Human, recounting its story with dramatic detail. From the stacks he unearthed original editions of Chinese and foreign masters, and what he called “scattered pearls” of literature, telling their stories with warmth. He also loves traveling. Hearing where I came from, he reminisced about visiting Liuzhou in the early 1990s—“Good mountains, good waters, a city on the rise.” He chuckled: “Perhaps it will flourish again.” Now, beneath the Tengwang Pavilion, he lays out the treasures of a lifetime, watching the bustling crowds. For fleeting visitors like me, a brief encounter over books and stories is more than enough.   “Ask no more when you depart, for the white clouds drift on without end.” Chinese Version: 爱好·就是主打一个啥都收藏 跟大叔的一个半小时买卖 聊一小时的天 书大部分是大学合并后，图书馆互清底后流出的，大叔说他就从中收了5万多册，还有些别的门道不便说了。 大叔并不全以此为生，却在收书方面也做了三十余年，我好奇问他为何如此，他认真地琢磨着我的问题后，笑回道这样能做我们这些年轻人的桥梁，过去日子和现在生活的桥梁。不过我觉得是他真正爱书，才是一个实在的答案，或是一切的出发点 他说这里的每一本书都是他亲自翻过，没问题能看的才摆来这儿卖。说的轻巧是检查一下，实则大叔是把内容都读了一遍，在给我推荐《人性的证明》时，便是绘声绘色地讲述其书。还为我翻出许多中外大家的原版书，以及他觉得散落在各时代文坛里的几颗“明珠”，顺便讲起他们的生平，这样的人是有意思的。 他是喜欢游山玩水的，聊起我的来处，他也讲述90年代初去的柳州样貌，当时是有好山水的，城市正兴，至于现在，也会好起来吧。 如今的他在滕王阁底下找了间小铺，摆上半辈子的藏物，看人间熙熙攘攘，偶遇我这般人短暂留步，笑谈后，亦是但去莫复问，白云无尽时 Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Independent Fieldwork-Huangshan Last Page ​Hongcun Carrying my backpack, I set out alone. I crossed three provinces and passed through fifteen cities, searching for what my teacher once spoke of in class—Hui-style architecture, the ink-wash landscapes of Jiangnan. I  stayed in Anhui, seeking fragments of civilization, hidden treasures yet to be unearthed. Here, I kept to my habit of speaking with people, and discovered lives and aspirations unlike my own. These were lessons no school could have taught me. On a rainy day, I stayed indoors and chatted with the innkeeper. She sighed: “Suzhou and Hangzhou may be the best seasons, but Anhui and Jiangxi are the true Jiangnan.” Born in Zhejiang, she had long known the misty charm of the south, yet she remained in Hongcun—settling here for half a lifetime, witnessing the village’s growth and change. Later, at an abandoned opera stage, the emptiness was striking. As I turned to leave, an elderly man pulled me aside, flustered, struggling to explain. He called out his wife, who held a tablet showing WeChat. Piece by piece, I understood—they wished to video call their daughter but did not know how. Their urgency eased once I showed them. They thanked me warmly, offering to make me tea. But the road was long, the path remote, and I kept walking, toward the next stop. Shexian Ancient City I once thought that my journey to Huangshan would be the most moving part of my travels. But now, words fail me—I can no longer fully articulate my feelings. In this poverty of expression, I owe an apology to all the Chinese teachers who once taught me. The solemn weight of Chinese history, the grandeur hidden within Hui-style architecture—step by step, they washed over my soul, again and again. To take a different path is, indeed, to find something different. I wandered into Doushan Street, a place where tourists seldom go. A street that can be walked in ten minutes, yet holds within it much of China’s modern history. Disorderly, yet never chaotic; its order lies in the dignity of history itself. The old residents here wear time upon their faces. In the rainy season, they simply move a wooden stool beneath the eaves and sit quietly, gazing with unclear eyes at a past long judged by others. And softly, they shared with me stories of what once was. Chengkan In Chengkan, I visited the home of two villagers in their seventies. Their life stories left a deep impression on me. The grandfather had grown up in Shanghai. After high school, he followed his parents to the countryside as a “sent-down youth.” His mother was once a student of Tao Xingzhi and later taught physics at a school founded by Tao. His father had served with the New Fourth Army, which allowed the family to retain some foundation during turbulent times. Almost everyone in the family became a teacher—even his sister, nine years his senior—yet he chose a different path, entering business and sales. With a laugh, he called it “being unconventional.” I thought it was perhaps that era’s small allowance for freedom, coupled with his family’s tolerance, that gave him space to become the person he wanted to be. The grandmother was a humble farmer who had lived in the village for more than forty years. She now works as a local guide for twenty yuan a tour—that was how I met her. Warm and kind, she once noticed my injured knee and walked ten minutes with me to a distant pharmacy. The next time we met, she invited me to her home. They showed me their courtyard and garden, and offered me a cup of their homemade “rough tea.” To me, its meaning far surpassed the finest Huangshan Maofeng or Qimen black tea. They remembered the legends of their elders and created wonders of their own. Despite upheaval and decline, they still raised a daughter who became a PhD in physics. Their resilience and achievement filled me with admiration. Stories like theirs could go on all night in conversation. Yet in this brief journey, to meet such people and hear such stories—I could only feel how truly fortunate I was. Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Independent Fieldwork-Hainan Last Page In Xinglong: Learning Nyonya Kueh In Xinglong, an overseas Chinese town in Hainan, I visited the home of an Indonesian Chinese family and learned to make nyonya kueh and coconut balls. This craft has been passed down for four generations. ​ Nyonya kueh is a traditional Southeast Asian cake that arose from the fusion of Chinese (mainly Hokkien and Hakka) and local cultures in Malaysia and Indonesia. Typically made with pandan leaves, coconut milk, and glutinous rice, these sweets are known for their vivid colors, layered textures, and delicate balance of sweetness. They are regarded as cultural symbols of memory and heritage within overseas Chinese communities. The lady in the photo still honors a long-kept tradition: returning to Indonesia every year to refine her skills and to learn new variations of nyonya kueh. For her, these sweets are more than  cakes—they are vessels of memory, migration, and cultural continuity. Her devotion shows in every detail of ingredient selection: pandan leaves carefully sourced after comparing vendors, coconuts imported from Thailand, taro from the famed Lipu region of Guangxi. Even rice, starch, and flour are chosen with meticulous care. In her hands, each piece of nyonya kueh is not merely a dessert but a slice of living history. ​ Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Independent Fieldwork-Hechi Last Page The Intangible Heritage of the Maonan People Together with a research team from Minzu University of China, I traveled to Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in Hechi, Guangxi, for fieldwork. There we met two inheritors of intangible cultural heritage. One practiced traditional Maonan weaving and dyeing—similar in technique to Zhuang brocade, yet marked by Maonan’s distinctive patterns and brilliant colors. The other specialized in bamboo weaving: cutting bamboo into sections, drying them, then slicing them into fine strips to be woven into bamboo hats, mats, rain capes, pen holders, and other daily necessities. We also visited local households, some of which still keep the most traditional wooden looms. Their gentle creaks in dimly lit rooms seemed to echo across generations. These crafts are more than techniques—they are living continuities of the Maonan people’s culture and memory. Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Independent Fieldwork-Liuzhou Last Page In Liuzhou’s old city, the riversides whisper, Huangzhu Alley carries stories, and the Dongmen Tower stands in silent witness. With camera and notebook in hand, together with my student team, I walk through lanes, pause by old walls, chat with square-dancing grandmas, exchange thoughts with out-of-town students, lean by street stalls listening to vendors’ tales. Through these conversations, I aim to capture memories that are gradually fading. This project aspires to be a bridge — not just sparking dialogue with younger generations, but honoring the terrain that holds these stories. It is more than interviews; it's a listening to, and a preservation of, the city's memories Short Interview recap Enjoy these photos of Liuzhou Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Independent Fieldwork-Nanjing Last Page A Poet’s Journey in a Snack Shop In Nanjing, I met a snack shop owner who has spent more than twenty years on a remarkable pursuit. Each year, beyond his daily business, he sets out to visit historic sites where China’s greatest poems were written. From the cliffs of Red Cliffs to the heights of Yellow Crane Tower, he traces the verses back to their landscapes. “These journeys give flavor to my cooking,” he laughed, “for behind every dish, I recall a distant line of poetry.” The Improvised Poet of Everyday Life​ On my last night in Nanjing, in a modest bar, I met a young woman full of stories. Born in northern Jiangsu but living in Nanjing, she juggles three part-time jobs: mornings in a café, afternoons at a concert hall, nights behind a bar. Others call it exhausting, but she calls it “stealing leisure from busyness.” That night, she mixed a “not-so-authentic” Margarita—substituting tequila for rum, dusted with glitter as a playful apology. “Life always comes with regrets,” she said, “but you can still make it sparkle.” Between shifts, she strummed a guitar borrowed from the live singer, saying she had learned by watching each night. She laughed: “This way of living is quite interesting.” To be idle, to live with fun—sometimes, that is enough. Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Unique and Rare Chinese Embroidered Album, circa 1750 Last Page This unique album, titled in French Costumes de la Chine (“Costumes of China”) holds 192 silk embroideries—ladies, warriors, phoenixes, flowers, and even European royals—cut and mounted on paper. Some use rare looped stitches that lift off the page, blending Chinese and minority techniques. Made not for daily wear but as a luxury cabinet piece for European elites, it captures the wonder of 18th–19th century global exchange, when Chinese artisans reimagined both their own culture and the West in dazzling thread. Wonders in Silk ​ Appreciation Phoenix Pairs – Remarkable Birds These embroidered phoenixes show how Chinese artisans reimagined auspicious motifs for global audiences. The first pair glitters with rare looped stitches, creating feathers that lift from the page in dazzling three-dimensional relief. The second, labeled remarkable Birds, uses vivid satin stitch to outline the phoenixes in bold symmetry. In China, the phoenix symbolized harmony and joy; in Europe, it appeared as an exotic wonder. Together they embody the hybrid nature of this album—part cultural emblem, part cabinet curiosity—crafted for elite collectors of the 18th–19th century. Aristocratic Figures in Silk This embroidered lady, long labeled by later owners as an “English Female Habit,” in fact recalls the courtly dress of early 18th-century Europe: a high coiffure, red bodice, black mantle, and ornate skirt. Her appearance is strikingly close to the Baroque and early Rococo styles visible in German and French portraiture. Beside her stand two officers in justaucorps coats, powdered wigs, and sashes, carrying sword, drum, and standard—imagery rooted in the visual culture of European courts around 1700–1740. Together, these figures embody the way Chinese artisans transformed imported engravings into silk applications for export. While the album itself was compiled later, their sources likely stem from the same aristocratic milieu that surrounded Sibylla Augusta of Baden-Baden (1675–1733), a noted patron and collector of Chinese art. Her passion for chinoiserie makes it tempting to imagine that such images—if not the embroideries themselves—once circulated within her world, bridging the distance between European nobility and Chinese craftsmanship. Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Collect ancient ethnic manuscripts from Southeast Asia Last Page We have gathered 200+ manuscripts and folk texts from Southeast Asia (and counting). Spanning multiple scripts, languages, and materials, these artifacts preserve migration, ritual, belief, and everyday knowledge. Our aim is to make dispersed local memories visible, researchable, and transmissible. Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Research on Variant Chinese Character & Ethnic Scripts Last Page Yuanpei Young Scholars Program, Peking University Topic: Cultural Rhythms in Variant Chinese Characters – A Study on the Transmission of Heterogeneous Chinese Scripts in Zhuang Communities during the Late Qing Dynasty Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Interpret and translate ethnic manuscripts Last Page On the Shidian Ancient Books platform, I arrange, transcribe, collate, and translate ethnic manuscripts—transforming dispersed voices into searchable, readable, and teachable knowledge. Shidian Ancient Books is an open-access digital platform for ancient Chinese texts developed and operated by the Peking University–ByteDance Open Laboratory for Digital Humanities. Since its launch in 2022, it has leveraged intelligent processing (e.g., OCR, layout analysis, annotation) to enhance access and usability for both the public and scholars. ​ Workflow Catalog & Metadata Layout Analysis Diplomatic & Normalized Transcription Collation & Annotation Reciprocity Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

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Ethnographer Member of Geyang Language Branch Research Team, Minzu University of China I am the youngest member of the Geyang Language Branch Research Team at Minzu University of China, currently participating in the National Social Science Foundation’s “Rare and Endangered Ethnic Studies” project. Over the past three years, I have ventured into the border regions of Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi, entering the villages of the Buyi, Gelao, Mulao, Zhuang, Buyang and other people. Through oral histories, linguistic surveys, and anthropological field work research, I explore lives, memories and languages that quietly persist. ​ Buyang Mountain Songs They are unrecognized ethnic  people living in the China-Vietnam border. This song is for welcoming the guests. Enjoy this song with us, and you are our guests as well. Welcome! Selected WeChat articles I authored or edited They have received over 18,000 views. Thanks for the generous support of Minzu University of China and Beijing Language and Culture University. 01 The Gelao People Emerging from the Pages of History Read Now 02 Field Notes:  the Baha Buyang Language in Guangnan, Yunnan Read Now 03 Review of Chinese Language and Culture Collection: Longlin Gelao Read Now 04 A Gelao High School Student’s Journey to Rediscover Culture Read Now 05 Entering the World of the Zhuang Buyang Bazhai Villages 1   Read Now Entering the World of the Zhuang Buyang Bazhai Villages 2 06 Read Now Beijing Language and Culture University 07 Read Now ​Preparing 08 Wait ​ 09 Wait ​ 10 Wait Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

Core Areas Ethnographer Open It took 3 years to travel deep into the remote mountain villages in southwest China, measuring the land with one's feet and documenting the oral history that is on the verge of vanishing. ​Fieldworker Open I conduct field research everywhere and write ethnographies for 4 years. Collector Open More than 293 ancient manuscripts on the verge of being lost have been successfully rescued and digitized. ​ Personal exclusive collection Interpreter Open Decipher and translate the ancient ethnic script, transform the long-buried texts into understandable knowledge, and build a communication bridge that transcends time and space Volunteer Open As a researcher and a member of the community, I participate in local cultural inheritance and education, and build genuine connections between people through actions. About Me CV My Gelao and Zhuang heritage showed me the silence left by lost stories, driving me to forge connections, not just preserve relics. ​ As a fieldworker, I record oral histories in China's Southwest mountains. As a scholar, I place these oral histories and ancient texts into dialogue, seeking to reconstruct the narratives that time has fragmented. I use digital tools to revive 293 ancient manuscripts, believing true scholarship is the dialogue between the dust of the field and the light of the digital—a space where past and future connect. Manuscript from Southern Zhuang People Interviewed Buyang People 1st High Schooler Presented at SfAA Annual Meeting 293+ Manuscripts Collected 3-Year Fieldwork Across SW China 1ST HIGH SCHOOLER PRESENTED AT SFAA ANNUAL MEETING 293+ MANUSCRIPTS COLLECTED 3-YEAR FIELDWORK ACROSS SW CHINA 1ST HIGH SCHOOLER PRESENTED AT SFAA ANNUAL MEETING 293+ MANUSCRIPTS COLLECTED 3-YEAR FIELDWORK ACROSS SW CHINA BOGE XIAO Student Ethnographer  Manuscript Researcher Fieldwork in Southwest China Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

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