In early 2024, I spent three months in Wuhan, a city that had become globally symbolic in the aftermath of the pandemic. My time there, both online and in the physical city, revealed a layered and contradictory landscape shaped by imagery, surveillance, and the rhythms of daily life.

Fragments of language surfaced as semi-formed images within the boundaries of the Great Firewall—through state-approved textbooks, real estate ads, and signage that echoed the propaganda posters (dazibao) of the 1970s. I collected and reassembled these fragments, merging and stacking them to reflect the convergence of information, commerce, and ideology in shaping the urban environment.

Scattered throughout the publication are phrases drawn from slogans, advertisements, and bureaucratic jargon: “Legality of clinical nuggets,” “10:37 Exclusive Offer [Domestic Products],” “Pastoral Power,” “Mother-tongue abduction crime,” “Flat Earthers Recum,” and others.

These snippets sit beside distorted maps, misaligned…