改革开放以来，中国城乡结构发生重大变化，加速发展的社会虽然带来了现代化的生活，但也一定程度带来乡土社会失语、家族血脉失忆、个人心灵失衡的问题。
2024年10月“美好的对话——乡村口述记忆”项目向社会公开招募。项目在众多报名者中选取了百余位来自全国近28个省份的记录者，于2025年春节从远方回到家乡，以对话的方式，寻回家族与乡土的记忆，重新认识抚育自己的亲人与故土，以期为中国乡土社会重建联系、重构记忆。
2024年12月到2025年1月，项目邀请六位社会学家、历史学家为记录者们带来六场讲座，从不同的角度为大家搭建起对话的框架。六场讲座分别是：中国农业大学孙庆忠教授的“重建与乡土的情感联系”，德国马克思·普朗克社会人类学研究所项飙教授的“附近和对话是塑造生活的手段”，中国人民大学杨祥银教授的“声音的力量：口述史的社会价值”，北京大学周飞舟教授的“城乡融合进程中的农村家庭”，中国社会科学院沙垚教授的“理解口述史：问题意识与操作方法”，中央美术学院王子琪教授的“聆听回家的路：对话的方法指南”。
此外，我们也持续整理推荐了40份参考资料，包括书籍、纪录片、访谈等，在我们的线上社群，为大家共建一个温暖的交流平台。
春节期间，百余名记录者从自己生活的城市，回到出生的乡村，拉起奶奶爷爷的手，跟随爸爸妈妈的脚步，在热闹的春节，静静地聆听那些尘封的故事。
左一为受访者春香，现85岁，采写者栖霞的奶奶；右一为采写者栖霞
父亲对话过程中重新走上铁轨的背影
受访者岳竹，现56岁，采写者禹杰的父亲
3月春暖，我们收到79位记录者在春节期间完成的“美好的对话”，累计对话时长174小时，形成了81万余字的文稿，另有录音、影像、手绘家谱等多元的档案形式。记录者纷纷反应，回到自以为熟悉的亲人和故乡，走进了的，却是一个潜藏在自己血脉中的新的世界。在这个世界里，认识了那些曾经年轻的他们。
外公1958年15岁小学毕业（左），1961年18岁初中毕业（中），1978年35岁工作时（右）的照片
受访者程万渐，现82岁，采写者招泓正的外公
祖母19岁初识祖父拍的照片，原为黑白，30年后去杭州旅游时上色
受访者周翠萍，现79岁，采写者张六逸的祖母
外公外婆年轻时的合影
右为受访者徐麟峰，现85岁，采写者徐雨薇的外公；左为徐雨薇的外婆
妈妈与三哥的童年合影
左一为受访者杜桐，现53岁，采写者蔺墨逸的母亲
爷爷与穿着全套火车司机制服的父亲合影
右一为受访者岳竹，现56岁，采写者禹杰的父亲
祖父一家四口与太爷爷的合影
右上受访者张惠民，现84岁，采写者张六逸的祖父；左上为受访者周翠萍，采写者张六逸的祖母；左下和右下分别为当时周翠萍和张惠民的两个孩子；中间为采写者张六逸的太爷爷
4月花开，项目组在16位来自中央美术学院、武汉大学、澳门大学、芝加哥大学的大学生志愿者的自发协助下，整理了675.21G的口述资料。在我们最终收到的材料中，采写者的平均年龄为25岁，最年轻的采写者16岁，最年长的采写者53岁。其中86.2%的采写者是女性。采写者中大部分是学生身份(含本/硕/博），占比为73.0%。绝大部分采写者出生于乡村，但已经离开乡村，常驻城镇。
他们采集的记忆，始于20世纪30年代，近百年的时间跨度让乡村的褶皱清晰可见。受访者的平均年龄为71岁，最年长者93岁。
我们听到那些被遮蔽的声音，那些曾囿于灶台与田埂的身影，成为了口述史中的主角。受访者里，女性以57.6%的比例略多于占比42.3%的男性，其中工人/职员占比为30.9%，农民占比为29.6%，退休人员占比为27.2%，个体户及自由职业占比8.6%，军人占比7.4%，教师占比9.9%，家庭主妇占比4.9%，医护人员占比9.9%，干部/基层工作者占比8.6%，其他人员占比4.9%。（有的受访者身兼多职，或历经多次职业变动，因此百分比总和并非100%）
口述记忆的背后，不仅有人生轨迹的经纬度，还有家族代际的迁移历史。受访者故乡与目前居住地完全相同的仅20份，占比为35.7%， 而64.3%的受访者经历了家族代际迁移。若将采写者故乡与常驻地进行对比，故乡与常驻地跨省占比为65.3%。我们看到，不论是当代青年，还是他们的父辈和祖辈，大部分人都经历了与故土的告别。
老屋里的旧藏，因为对话拥有了新的生命。共有35位记录者在材料里展示了对话中提到老物件，其中包括但不限于家谱12份，老照片20份，有纪念意义的老物件共10组，包含老钱币、纸币、粮票、布票、老证书、老证件、黄历、立功证、旧风琴、旧地图、公署文件、军工厂通行证，具体为莲塘公社颜处村小学85届毕业留影、丁氏族谱存放箱、国营第5413军工厂/河北第二机械厂证件、1953年纸币、1966年的粮票、五好工人照片等。这些角落里的珍藏不再成为沉默的史书，而通过对话被再记录。
叶晓霞：母亲的嫁妆
禹杰：父亲当年戴过的火车司机制服帽子，已经开线破裂，被父亲随意放在了铁柜子下层
在真切的漫谈里，“我比从前更了解你，又重新认识了我自己”。在采写的有效数据中，口述次数累计共235次，平均每位采写者做了3.26次口述采写。口述次数最高为50次，口述时长累计共174.31小时，平均每位采写者与被采访者进行了2.4小时的对话。在采写的有效数据中，口述字数累计共814421字。
5月5，今立夏，万物至此长大，我们美好的对话也将开始与大家分享这些跨越时空的悄悄话，让这些曾被折叠的家族记忆、生命史与乡村史诗，进入一场新的公共对话之旅。
《“五岁时我在躲战斗机”：外公的生命史》招泓正采写
《曾祖父说土地上需要人，于是他一辈子留在了土地上》叶晓霞采写
《海潮与烟火：家族女性的记忆与传承》栖霞采写
《奶奶先下车了，父亲仍行走在铁轨上》禹杰采写
《外公，我想向您敬军礼》徐雨薇采写
《妈妈说：“就这碗饭，你放心吃”》蔺墨逸采写
《快乐老爸的湘乡“流浪记”》西贝采写
《我的父亲有10个亲兄弟！》丁越采写
《时光匠人：外公用八十年淬炼钢铁柔情》潘昱杭采写
《岁月如歌：从泰州到青海的家史记忆》张六逸采写
《太爷爷生于1921，他是饮马河畔的家族传说》孙佳怡采写
末了，我们由衷的感谢所有，执笔的你、讲述的他和她和它、那些去了远方，也回得了故乡的我们。
Project Achievements | At the Beginning of Summer, Let’s Listen to the Whispers from Our Hometowns
The warm breeze of early May, heralding the arrival of Lixia (the beginning of summer), still carries the lingering fragrance of late spring, stirring a quiet joy in the heart. As my eyes linger over these pages born of “Beautiful Dialogues,” my father’s face—so familiar from his gentle musings when he was alive—rises vividly in my memory. Those difficult personal experiences, those turbulent joys and sorrows of generations past, were stories my father carefully recounted again and again over a steaming cup of tea. In the life map he wove through decades of labor, there were both the hearty laughs echoing like the green forests of the Daba Mountains, and the silent sighs buried deep within the tunnels of the highway. The “complete voice” that Bakhtin once spoke of finds a genuine manifestation here—my father’s life gains renewed meaning in dialogue with me, and my own sense of self is rekindled in our conversations.
Dialogue is an everyday ritual for rebuilding emotional bonds with loved ones. The two initiators of Beautiful Dialogues hoped to use warm conversations as an iron, smoothing the creases of forgotten memories left in the wake of rapid urban and rural transformation. Encouragingly, more than a hundred interviewers from all corners of the country returned to their hometowns like migratory birds, warming the hearts of friends and relatives with the tenderness of their presence. They are not merely transcribers of ancestral lives, but individuals who, with wholehearted devotion, knock on the door of collective memory. Their emotional engagement has yielded a treasure trove of life stories that move us deeply. Thus, we are able to feel the calloused textures of Grandma Chunxiang’s 85-year-old hands, and listen to Grandpa Wanjian’s boat songs echoing across time and space. Through dynamic acts of dialogue, these private narratives intertwine to form a beautiful symphony of collective memory, resonating like a harmony of the earth within the ever-changing melodies of our era.
Dialogue is the elevation of life, the reconstruction of value. When Qixia holds tightly to her grandmother’s cracked palm, and Yujie retraces his father’s railway steps to re-measure time, dialogue transcends the ordinary and reveals the meaning of life. The 79 manuscripts and 174 hours of recorded sound are not a mechanical accumulation of data, but a vivid testament to stories of emotion and humanity. Within them, we glimpse what Heidegger called the “poetic dwelling” of the human spirit. Zhang Luyi retraces the migration paths of his ancestors; Xu Yuwei captures the solemn moment of her grandfather’s military salute. Whispers by the stove and the dust raised in the fields—all become part of a communal memory forged through personal dialogue.
Dialogue is an awakening of intellect, a bond of civilization. From Socrates' method of midwifery to Confucius’ way of transmitting wisdom without creating, humanity has always affirmed its intellectual heritage through dialogue. The survival philosophies forged in front of my grandfather’s steel furnace, the life aphorisms rising in the steam of my grandmother’s kitchen—all are now finding their place in an 800,000-character chronicle of rural lives. Yellowing ration coupons regain their value through conversation; faded genealogies sprout new life. This kind of dialogue is a generative, flourishing revelation of wisdom—an endless, unfolding epic of ordinary sages.
As the summer wind sweeps across the fields, may these seeds of dialogue scattered through mountains, rivers, and lakes grow with the warmth of memory against the chill of forgetting, and rise into great trees of life that stand in quiet vigil over our shared longing for home.
Yong Xiang
Co-initiator of Beautiful Dialogues: Oral Histories from the Countryside
Since the beginning of China's reform and opening-up, dramatic changes have taken place in the urban-rural structure. While rapid development has brought modern conveniences, it has also led, to some extent, to the silencing of rural voices, the forgetting of family lineages, and a sense of inner imbalance.
In October 2024, the Beautiful Dialogues: Oral Histories from the Countryside project launched an open call for participants. From hundreds of applicants, over 100 documenters were selected from nearly 28 provinces across China. During the 2025 Spring Festival, they returned from cities to their hometowns to recover family and rural memories through conversation—to reconnect with their elders and the land that raised them, and to contribute to rebuilding the ties and recollections of China’s rural society.
From December 2024 to January 2025, the project invited six sociologists and historians to deliver a series of six lectures, offering diverse perspectives to help participants build a framework for dialogue. These lectures included Professor Sun Qingzhong from China Agricultural University on "Rebuilding Emotional Ties with the Native Land," Professor Xiang Biao from the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany on "Proximity and Dialogue as Means of Shaping Life," Professor Yang Xiangyin from Renmin University of China on "The Power of Voice: The Social Value of Oral History," Professor Zhou Feizhou from Peking University on "Rural Families in the Process of Urban-Rural Integration," Professor Sha Yao from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on "Understanding Oral History: Research Questions and Methodological Approaches," and Professor Wang Ziqi from the Central Academy of Fine Arts on "Listening to the Way Home: A Guide to the Methods of Dialogue."
We also compiled and recommended 40 reference materials—including books, documentaries, and interviews—shared within our online community to foster a warm space for exchange and mutual support.
During the Spring Festival, over 100 documenters journeyed from the cities where they live back to the villages where they were born. They held the hands of their grandparents, followed in the footsteps of their parents, and quietly listened to long-buried stories amid the festive New Year atmosphere.
In March, as spring returned, we received 79 completed “beautiful dialogues” recorded during the holiday period. Together, they amassed 174 hours of conversation and over 810,000 words of transcripts, alongside audio, video, hand-drawn family trees, and other archival forms. Many documenters reflected that what they thought was familiar—their kin and hometowns—opened into an entirely new world, a world embedded in their bloodlines. In that world, they came to know the once-young lives of their elders.
In April, as blossoms bloomed, the project team—with the voluntary help of 16 university students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Wuhan University, University of Macau, and the University of Chicago—sorted through 675.21GB of oral materials. Among the final submissions, the average age of documenters was 25.1, with the youngest being 16 and the oldest 53. Female participants accounted for 86.2% of the group. The majority were students (undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral), making up 73.0%. Most were born in rural areas but now live in urban environments.
The memories they collected span nearly a century, beginning in the 1930s, revealing the intricate folds of rural life. The average age of interviewees was 71, with the eldest being 93.
We heard previously obscured voices—figures once confined to the hearth and the fields now stood at the center of the historical record. Of the interviewees, 57.6% were women and 42.3% men. Occupational breakdowns included: workers/clerks (30.9%), farmers (29.6%), retirees (27.2%), self-employed/freelancers (8.6%), military personnel (7.4%), teachers (9.9%), homemakers (4.9%), medical staff (9.9%), grassroots workers/cadres (8.6%), and others (4.9%).(Some interviewees held multiple roles or changed professions over time, so percentages do not total 100%.)
Behind each oral narrative lies not only a personal journey but also the migratory history of families across generations. Only 20 submissions involved interviewees whose current residence matched their ancestral hometown—just 35.7%. The remaining 64.3% had experienced intergenerational migration. Among documenters, 65.3% had relocated across provinces from their hometowns. We observed that, across generations, most people have said farewell to the land of their roots.
Old keepsakes in ancestral homes gained new life through dialogue. A total of 35 documenters highlighted heirlooms referenced in their interviews, including but not limited to: 12 family genealogies, 20 old photographs, and 10 sets of memorabilia such as antique currency, ration coupons, cloth tickets, certificates, calendars, merit citations, an old harmonium, maps, government documents, and factory IDs. Examples include a class photo from Yan Chu Village Primary School (1985), a genealogical chest of the Ding family, an ID from the State-run 5413 Military Factory / Hebei No. 2 Machinery Plant, a 1953 banknote, a 1966 ration ticket, and photos of “model workers.” These treasures are no longer silent relics, but vibrant records brought back to life through storytelling.
In these heartfelt conversations, many expressed: “I understand you better now—and in doing so, rediscovered myself.” Across all valid submissions, 235 oral sessions were recorded—an average of 3.26 interviews per documenter. The highest count by an individual was 50 interviews. Total conversation time reached 174.31 hours, averaging 2.4 hours per interviewee. Altogether, the transcribed content amounts to 814,421 words.
On May 5th, the Beginning of Summer, when all life flourishes, our Beautiful Dialogues project begins to share these time-transcending whispers. May these once-folded family memories, life stories, and rural epics now enter a new journey of public conversation.
“When I Was Five, I Was Hiding from Fighter Jets”: My Grandfather’s Life History – by Zhao Hongzheng
“My Father Said the Land Needed People, So He Stayed All His Life” – by Ye Xiaoxia
“Tides and Fireworks: Memory and Legacy of Women in My Family” – by Xixia
“Grandma Got Off the Train First, and My Father Keeps Walking the Tracks” – by Yu Jie
“Grandpa, I Wish to Salute You” – by Xu Yuwei
“Mom Said: 'This Bowl of Rice—Go Ahead, Eat Without Worry’” – by Lin Moyi
“Happy Dad’s 'Wandering Tale' in Xiangxiang” – by Xibei
“My Father Has Ten Brothers!” – by Ding Yue
“Master of Time: Grandpa’s Eight Decades of Tempered Steel and Tenderness” – by Pan Yuhang
“A Life Like a Song: Family Memories from Taizhou to Qinghai” – by Zhang Liuyi
“Great-Grandfather Was Born in 1921—A Legend by the Yinma River” – by Sun Jiayi
Finally, we offer our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you—the writers, the storytellers, and all of us who have wandered far, yet still find our way home.
此项目为公益项目，项目的继续还需要大家支持，诚邀您赞助“美好的对话”后续活动，有意请咨询微信：645090721
This project is a public welfare project, and its continuation needs everyone's support. We sincerely invite you to sponsor the follow-up activities of "Beautiful Dialogue". If you are interested, please consult WeChat: 645090721
撰稿| 王子琪 曾薇毓 刘凤韬 侯昕彤 董思妍
编校| 张诗琪
排版| 虞艾麒
Text| Ziqi Wang, Weiyu Zeng, Fengtao Liu, Xintong Hou, Siyan Dong
Edit| Shiqi Zhang
Layout | Aiqi Yu
学术指导|向勇
项目策划|王子琪
项目统筹|曾薇毓
团队成员|曹枫茹/虞艾麒/刘凤韬/王一鸣
Academic mentoring | Yong Xiang
Project planning | Ziqi Wang
Project management | Weiyu Zeng
Team members | Fengru Cao，Aiqi Yu，Fengtao Liu，Yiming Wang
UNESCO乡村创意与可持续发展教席
2024年3月1日，联合国教科文组织总干事奥德蕾·阿祖莱女士与北京大学校长龚旗煌院士签署了乡村创意与可持续发展教共建协议，教席主持人由艺术学院教授向勇担任。联合国教科文组织教席项目设立于 1992年，截止目前，共在120个国家设立950余个教席，在中国设立 30个教席。
联合国教科文组织乡村创意与可持续发展教席将积极回应和落实联合国可持续发展目标，聚焦乡村文化创意的可持续发展，面向乡村文化领域的儿童、妇女、创业者和基层管理者开展各类学术研究、人才培养和文创实践活动。
UNESCO Chair on Rural Creativity and Sustainable Development
On March 1, 2024, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and President Gong Qihang of Peking University signed an agreement to establish the UNESCO Chair on Rural Creativity and Sustainable Development. The chair will be led by Professor Xiang Yong from the School of Arts. Launched in 1992, the UNESCO Chairs Program has established more than 950 chairs across 120 countries, with 30 chairs located in China.
The UNESCO Chair on Rural Creativity and Sustainable Development will actively support and advance the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will focus on promoting the sustainable development of rural cultural creativity, engaging in academic research, talent development, and creative cultural initiatives aimed at children, women, entrepreneurs, and grassroots leaders within rural communities.
美好的对话：乡村口述记忆项目
依托于UNESCO乡创教席，响应国家自2017年提出的乡村振兴战略、2022年提出的“和美乡村建设”到2024年中共中央、国务院《关于全面推进美丽中国建设的意见》“开展美丽中国建设全⺠行动”，整合艺术学界、社会学界的核心师资，我们将于2024年10月正式组织开展“美好的对话：乡村口述记忆”周期性社会性艺术项目，聚焦口述史采写、影像、展映、出版。
项目旨在为中国乡土社会重建联系、重构记忆；搭建城市青年与乡村长辈之间的沟通桥梁，激活乡土记忆；收集并保存乡村的历史资料，丰富地方志资源，提炼乡村文化IP；提高年轻一代对乡村文化的认知度和尊重度，促进文化的多样性传承；探索可持续的城乡互动模式，推动社会和谐发展。
Beautiful Dialogues: The Rural Oral Memory Project
Leveraging the UNESCO Chair in Rural Creativity, and in response to China’s rural revitalization strategy initiated in 2017, the “Beautiful Rural Construction” campaign proposed in 2022, and the “National Campaign for Building a Beautiful China” outlined in 2024 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, we will officially launch the “Beautiful Conversations: Rural Oral Memory” cyclical social art project in October 2024. The project will focus on oral history collection, film and video documentation, exhibitions, screenings, and publishing.
The goal of the project is to rebuild connections and reconstruct collective memories within rural China; to create a bridge of communication between urban youth and rural elders, revitalizing rural memory; to collect and preserve historical records of rural communities, enrich local gazetteer resources, and refine rural cultural intellectual property (IP); to raise awareness and respect for rural culture among younger generations, promoting the inheritance of cultural diversity; and to explore sustainable urban-rural interaction models that foster social harmony and development.
