This project tells the story of my grandmother, whose farmland in rural China gradually became smaller as local development plans changed the landscape around her. From 1996 until 2017, I followed how the land she once farmed was incrementally taken for infrastructure and urban expansion. Eventually, she was relocated, and the place where her home and fields once stood is now occupied by a gas station and a major road.

In Western media, land appropriation in China is often portrayed as sudden and conflict-driven. While such conflicts do happen, many cases unfold more gradually and little conflict or confrontation. By focusing on the personal story of my grandmother, this piece shows the broader transformation of China’s rural landscape.