People's Architecture
	BIO  |  QUOTE  |  PRESENTATION     OU NING From my point of view, Guangdong is an alien territory in the political domain of China. In the Guangzhou Triennial exhibition last year, Hou Hanru, a native Guangdong man, and I held the same view that Guangdong is independent in culture, which is different from the main steam China. There are several reasons, similar to what I have said yesterday. The first reason is that, it is the first to have trade with foreign countries. When the other parts of Mainland China were still in the previous state, Guangdong began to open to the world and started to do business with British people. The second reason is the National Revolution, which brought the royal ruling to an end, and which is closely related to a Guangdong people, Sun Yat-Sen. Guangzhou was at first a base for his revolutionary activities. At that time, Guangzhou was the city that all revolutionary young people yearned for. And the third reason is that it is the first city opening to the world in late 1970’s. The above three points make it a pioneer of the times in the aspects of ideology and concept. Guangdong is very different from the mainstream society and orientation of value. It’s more or less similar to punk culture or independent music culture. In other words, independent culture fits Guangdong perfectly, and it has become a culture characteristic of Guangdong. My experience of composing poems has great impact on what I do today. I went to the junior middle school at Suixi, and later for senior high school I was recommended to No 1 High School in Zhanjiang. At that time, I began to meet some people and had the opportunity to get in touch with the most advanced ideas of the 1980’s. Even today we still cherish the memory of the culture of the 80’s. There was not a time like the 80’s in China’s history when people could be as free in thinking, and were so feverish about literature and arts. That was a golden time, and I was just in my adolescence. Bei Dao and Mang Ke were famous poets of that time. They started to do some underground activities in the 1970’s. They created an underground literature magazine, which was very popular among some people. I was lucky enough to have the chance to read their poems when I was in high school. The impact was great. Due to a periodical they published entitled “Today”, they were called “toadyism poets”. Looking back, we could call that time “iron politics”. It was a time of closeness and depress. What they wrote was critical and with a strong hint of politics, but inspiring. OU NING, interview with People's Architecture, Rotterdam, June 12, 2006