Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2016

Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2016

The Vanishing Villages in Guangzhou, China
Jiaying Cao

About three hundred villages disappeared every day in China from 2000 to 2010 according to research by Tianjin University. As part of the “urbanization process,” this is a significant phenomenon taking place in all the major cities in China. It is undoubtedly a progress that we endured in order to pursue the economic growth of the entire country. However, people living and working in these villages were affected substantially.

I was born and raised in Guangzhou, one of the cities that suffered severely from this growth. I was and still quite astonished by the extremely rapid changes happening year to year. The city has grown by destroying these small villages and making them become part of its new, modernized appearance. I’m scared by the speed that our villages are disappearing, and I fear that someday we will also lose all of our local traditions and history, which I think are necessary for our nation to hold onto and preserve.

I have created this timeline using collected photos of people’s reactions regarding the demolition of their villages as well as how they were changed by it. Some of the unique traditions of these villages are also included. Hopefully this website will make people notice and think about this phenomenon which might also be happening in other developments around the world.

Selwa Abd

Ashley Seung Hyun Ahn

Natasha Alia

Aviva Atri

Marissa Baca

Miles Barretto

Lili Marie Bravi

Olivia Brodbar

Carla Campos-Rodriguez

Jiaying Cao

Robert Capaldo

Janet Chan

Purwa Chauhan

Patrick Chen

Sarada Chen

Linette Cheong

Eunsil Choi

Sung Ji Choi

Brittany Cutrone

Arianna De Gasperis

Paola Delucca

Rubina Melati Diran

Ann Dwyer

Dilan Emre

Douglas Escalante

Joshua Estrella

Joe Louis Evans

Marius Franc

Ceilidh Fraser

Gaby Garuz

Jiayi Ge

Stella Giavos

Meher Goel

Em Grey

Alyssa Gruber

Yu Bean Han

Cherish Hsiaohui Ho

Jasmine Hong

Jay Hsiao

Irene Hwang

Louise Pei Foong Hyde

Sanghyun Ji

Sharon (Eun Rae) Kim

Lisa Kim

Sharon Kim

David Klein

Teresa Koh

Da Min Lee

Lauren Elizabeth Lee

Stephanie Sumin Lee

Dana Li

Haowei Lin

Lucas Long

Lisa Looye

Zongliang Lou

Ankita Menon

Lauren Miller

Katie Minchak

Isabela Montalvo

Nathalie Moreno

Samah Mudasar

Shirin Muradova

Supisara Ngaovithunvong

Gabriela Nisenbaum

Inyegumena Nosegbe

Zoe Oleshansky

Yeon Soo Park

Anna Peditto

Pamela Pombo

Lisa Sakai Quinley

Josephine Rahadi

Sarah Rose Reichert

Ana Julia Rodriguez

Rick Rodriguez

Fernanda Romero

Hannah Rosen-Hamilton

Ivana Roumiantzeff-Pachkevitch

Taylor Russo

Ariella Saragossi

Nengneng Shen

Kripa Sial

Maurann Stein

Kurt Stives

Minji Sung

Vanshika Swaika

Nicholas Tanzman

Ana Cecilia Thompson Motta

Joel Tschong

Yue Wang

Laurie Waxman

Kevin Wen

Yingmeng Xu

Anna Yamoto

Jiawei Yan

Vivian Yang

Xiao Q. Yang

McLayne Ycmat

Evelyn Zhang

Xuan Zhang