產權 Property

The Shanzhai Lyric mini publications are published by Display Distribute and each represent the culmination of a particular body of research by Ming Lin and Alexandra Tatarsky, the duo behind Shanzhai Lyric.

This issue, titled PROPERTY, is a collection of poems assembled on the occasion of “AIL PALACES ARETEMPORARY HALACES: A Shanzhai Lyric” at Abrons Arts Center, formerly “Arts for Living Center,” a long-time bastion of multi-lingual hybridity, anti-elitist art-making, feminist discourse, fair wages advocacy, utopian housing constitution, and garment labor organizing. At the behest of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Abraham E. Kazan led the construction of affordable housing complexes near Abrons, inspired by the twenty-eight weavers of Rochdale who instituted a radical set of cooperative principles in 19th century England.

Shanzhai Lyric is a body of research focusing on radical logistics and linguistics through the prism of technological aberration and nonofficial cultures. The project takes inspiration from the experimental English of shanzhai t-shirts made in China and proliferating across the globe to examine how the language of counterfeit uses mimicry, hybridity, and permutation to both revel in and reveal the artifice of global hierarchies. Through an ever-growing archive of poetry-garments, Shanzhai Lyric explores the potential of mis-translation and nonsense as utopian world-making (breaking) and has previously taken the form of poetry-lecture, essay, and installation.

2019, Chinese/English
Author: Ming Lin and Alexandra Tatarsky
Published by: Display Distribute (Hong Kong)
Softcover, 210 x 297 mm, b+w on color paper