Henan, known as "the Central Plain”, is considered the birthplace of Han Chinese civilization and regarded as the center of the world in ancient Chinese thinking. It has a long history and was served as the political center for many dynasties. However, after the Reform and Opening up, Henan gradually became a synonym for backwardness and poverty due to its lagging economic development, relatively slow modernization process, and lack of educational and job opportunities due to its large population. The outward migration of young people and the closure of factories due to environmental protection policies have gradually emptied villages and county towns. In the villages, there is still propaganda graffiti left by several reforms in China's history and architectural relics from the Mao era, as well as dilapidated houses overtaken by trees because people no longer live there. At the same time, many unfinished buildings are halfway through due to the rupture of its capital chain. The reinforced concrete structures frame the city's sky like windows, leaving a blank imagination.

The village is also particularly deserted during the Chinese New Year when young people should return to their original homes for a reunion and to celebrate the upcoming new year. However, more and more people choose to bring their parents to the city instead of staying in the old village. Almost all the shops on the street are closed, leaving only a few elderly people sitting by the door, warming their hands beside the fire and discussing relatives and friends who have passed away and left. The scene in the village intertwines with people’s dialogues, becoming a metaphor for disease, aging, and forgetting. People there keep repeating the significance of memory, the memory of the central plain, the history, the forgotten generation, and the past sufferings hidden behind the official narrative.

Here, emptiness, as scholar Dace Dzenovska describes, becomes a temporary state. The old order has ended, but the new order has not yet been established. Emptiness does not refer to vacancy or disappearing entirely; it might be full of “wrong” things that are rearranged messily or chaotically. In Henan, emptiness and the absence or disruption of orders could be observed everywhere: old broken houses standing by the new ones with dedicated decoration, people living in houses with broken walls due to demolition, an unfinished factory building occupied by a farmer and his grains, and the ancient opera stage which has been once transformed into a school. These changing scenes in Henan overlap with the physical materials left by different historical periods, intertwined with complicated human emotions of loss and nostalgia. Together, they fill in the empty space and lead to a collective inability to imagine an indeterminate future. Therefore, this project aims to follow the memories of the previous generation and look at current villages in Henan, trying to reimagine “the Central Plain" through images.