@anosartor: A Story of Ürümqi Road Sign
Ano·sartor
1. a garment workshop in a Chinatown, no country. Always changing our location for cheaper rent. Last found underneath a highway bridge. We make clothes for fake fashion hoodies, Shein, Christmas Pajamas on Esty and even once a female-right protest vest.
2. a bot on the Internet, made open-sourced toolkit--digital packages with editable drawings, posters and banners, for protests and daily resistance. Few people know them but the visual elements they make are recently seen in many cities of Europe, Asia and North America.
3. occupant in whatever space they can find, including galleries and art institutions.
4. has many other names.
A Story of Ürümqi Road Sign
Ürümqi, a city with a thousand-year history in Central Asia, is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in the far northwest of China.
On November 24, 2022, a high-rise building in Ürümqi caught fire. Ten people died, including two children. All the fire exits had been sealed and wired shut by local administrations determined to enforce the 'zero-covid policy' passed down from the highest leadership. All the deceased were Uyghurs.
Two days later, people in Shanghai protested on Ürümqi Middle Road to mourn the victims of the Ürümqi fire and voice their opposition to the 'zero-covid policy,' which had led to numerous bureaucratic ironies and tragedies over the past three years. Images and footage of people protesting under the 'Wulumuqi' (Ürümqi in Mandarin) road sign spread across the internet. It was a critical moment for a country that has lacked a robust civil society for decades.
November 26, 2022
Protest in Shanghai and the Original Road Sign
Found Image from News
November 29, 2022
Shanghai
They censored all the keywords related to Urumqi on the internet and
took off the roadsign at where the first protest happened, pretending
nothing happened; arrogant as usual
The package also included a smaller version of the sign for posters and stickers in different editable formats, and it was released as an open-source resource with no attached authorship.
The Shanghai protest sparked echoes in major cities across Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Sinophone communities worldwide. They protested against the three-year covid policy and decades of Uyghur oppression.
November 27, 2022
Unrecognizable city
Image from the Internet
As I scrolled through social media and news, I saw the road sign I designed appearing in protest images and footage from NYC, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Cologne, Austin, Guangzhou, and other unrecognizable locations. These signs were made and photos taken by people I didn't know.
November 28, 2022
John Hopkins, Baltimore
Found Image JHnewshouse
Nov 30, 2022
Tiananmen Memorial, Boston
Found Image GettyImage and digboston
November 28-30, 2022
Paris
Image from internet
November 28-30, 2022
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
Found Image on Instagram
November 28, 2022
Hong Kong
Found Image on YouTube CNA
November 28-30, 2022
Hong Kong
Image sent to me by a friend, who found it online.
November 28, 2022
The Chinese embassy in Tokyo
Found Image gettyimages
Unknown date
Wageningen
people put this file into other platforms and made new links and posters
November 28-30, 2022
Square de la Bastille
Found Image on Twitter
November 28, 2022
Chinese embassy in Frankfurt
Found Image online
November 28, 2022
Washington DC
Found Image on twitter @wangqingpeng1
(”Someone is shouting--Don't forget”)
Unknown Date
Found image on Twitter
November 27, 2022
Délèisīdùn, Germany
Found Image on an Instagram chat screenshot
November 27-December 2, 2022
Unrecognizable city
Image from the Internet
November 28-30, 2022
London
Screenshot from a video on the internet
December 2, New York
Image Found in Telegram
November 29, 2022
Leiden, Europe
Found Image from Instagram citizendailycn
November 27, 2022
Wuhan
The Living Room of one of the few remaining human rights lawyers in China.
Image from Wechat, a Chinese Social Media Platform
From a friend.
December 3, 2022
an Unknown North American City
Found Image from a Chatgroup
November 28-30, Ithaca, New York.
Found Image from Instagram@Northeern_square
December 3, 2022
Guangzhou
Found Image from a Chatgroup of a local bar
December 4, 2022
Chapel Hill
Image from Signal - an encrypted group chat
November 29, 2022
Syracuse, NY
Found Image NCC News House
November 29, 2022
New York City
Found Image Washington Square New
Novembe28-30, 2022
Mankato, MN
Image from a friend via Signal
“We're getting snow here, and people keep coming up
and wiping the snow off the sign.”
November 29,2022
Austin, Texas.
Found Image from Instagram message
January 2023
Santa Barbara, CA
Found Image on Instagram @烛光精选-an Archive of Mourning,
an Instagram channel that was created to archive this movement
January, 2023
Oxford
Found Image on Instagram
@烛光精选- an Archive of Mourning
Nov 28, 2022
Amsterdam
Image from a friend who saw it online
A Day of 2023
Berlin
Found Image online
Nov 28, 2022
Amsterdam
Image from a friend who saw it online
November 29, New Haven, Connecticut
Found Image from Instagram Northern_square
Unknown Date of 2023
Berlin
An International Human Rights Day,
Found Image online
December 2022
An anonymous city
Image from a friend
On December 7, China abandoned the zero-covid policy and arrested protestors in mainland China who had been identified through street cameras. Protest information disappeared from the internet, and people – except for the Uyghurs – returned to their everyday lives.
download this story in zine: https://mega.nz/folder/HU5QHAZY#sQyjg1m8RBc2kuapxwo95Q
Xinjiang victim database: https://shahit.biz/eng/