In the summer of 2021, under the guidance of a friend, I attended the Fudan Wudu Music Festival for the first time – a campus music festival organised by the Fudan Musicians’ Union, which has been held for 18 years. Every year, bands from both inside and outside the university are invited to perform at the festival, which has been held for 18 years. “Wudu was originally held on campus, but since the 2020 epidemic, it has moved to NEO Bar near the school. The bar is located in the Fudan Entrepreneurship Park, so the regulars are students from the surrounding universities.

At that time, when most of the activities on campus were closed and students just studied quietly all day, it had been too long since I’d seen young, free-spirited individuals dancing, hugging, laying down on the grass and drinking, laughing and singing on stage, a far cry from their usual seated campus counterparts. I wasn’t interested in such an occasion, but on this dreary evening I was struck by their unbridled emotion and resolved to get to know this group. In an environment where people are becoming more and more isolated and neglected, I wanted to redirect my attention to people, and through them, explore the relationship between people and find my connection with the environment around me.

The project runs until June 2023 – when my friends, my subjects, graduate. One of the regular filming locations is “Elle’s Garden”, another small bar run by Fudan graduates. Although it was a bar, the manager often organised events related to music, film, art and reading, so it was actually a place of cultural and artistic exchange for many students, who used to gather here after classes for chatting and drinking, playing the piano and performing, as well as going on dates.

Over the course of two years of photographing, I went from being strangers to being familiar with this group of people, to parting with them, and eventually sifting through the works that make up “Tomorrow is Longer”. When I was arranging these photos and looking at these faces, the lyrics of Dou Wei’s song “Tomorrow is Longer” kept circling in my mind: “Running madly and stumbling in spite of everything, running to the embrace that makes me feel safe, leaving yesterday to embrace hope, bidding farewell to the night and waiting for the day to dawn, past glories don’t matter any more, tomorrow is even longer. ”

Reading and writing, talking about love and drunkenness, this night is over, tomorrow is longer.

Published in 2023
22 x 17.4 cm
68 pages

Showcased as part of Jimei x Arles: Travelling Photobook Showcase at the 9th SIPF Photobook Showcase

Artist Biography:

Born in Guiyang, Guizhou in 1997, Zongzhi (real name: Yixi Tian) graduated from the Chinese Department of Fudan University with a master’s degree in Publishing in 2022, and her research interests are in the publication of books on Chinese photographic art in the Republican period. Her creative direction focuses on the alienation of people’s inner emotions in the process of modernisation, and reflects on the “separation” and “unity” of interpersonal relationships under the influence of the current environment and culture.