Old villages are destroyed in favor of new developments, but their construction has not yet begun. The areas are surrounded by a wall and covered with green fabric mimicking grass. People have broken through the walls to use the land for their leisure. Traces of the old villages are shimmering through, concrete columns of the electric wire system, a big old tree, or the trace of a road. Alice is searching for her dog among the construction site. She calls him ‘Go-dan’, which means Dog-egg. The similar pronunciation is a reference to Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot in commenting the future of China’s urbanization—possibly, the allegorical Godot cannot be found.

While we are shooting during December 2017, a fire broke out near the shooting site in the outskirts of Beijing, people without resident permit were forced to move out of the villages. Hundreds had to flee on the cold winter day, not being able to take their belongings. [2017]