Ningbo City is commonly known as a port city, where one of the busiest port in the world is located. Tracing back to its very beginning, Ningbo City (known as Mingzhou at that time) was also built around the confluence of rivers Yong, Yuyao and Fenghua in 821 AD. Water has played a vital role in the development of Ningbo City.

This exhibition takes the water culture of Ningbo as a starting point, encouraging participants to ponder upon the city’s history through tracking the past, the present urban development, social change, and individual life to the future of the city.

The exhibition with a theme of “What makes a city?” is a brainchild of UNNC Ningbo Urban Memory Lab. It was initiated by Dr Yat-Ming Loo, Associate Professor in Architecture and Urbanism, Department of Architecture and Built Environment, and his three PhD research students, Qianxi Zhang, Yanning Xiang and Xuan Sun. Since its establishment in December 2020, more than 40 undergraduate students across the Faculty of Science and Engineering have joined the Lab and conducted research on Ningbo City and collected Ningbo memory presented through activities such as City Walks, documentaries and dialogues with famous architects. Part of the research outcome and artwork will be shown in this exhibition.

The idea of the exhibition originates from Dr Yat-Ming Loo’s inter-disciplinary research on architecture, architectural history, cultural studies, ethnography and urbanism. As a Chinese Malaysian, Dr Yat-Ming Loo has long focused on the study of Chinese people, migrants, urban memory and intercultural exchanges, such as Chinatown in London and Chinese spaces in Malaysia. He has done archives, exhibitions and city walks for the urban memories of the Chinese people in London. His major publications include: Architecture and Urban Form in Kuala Lumpur: Race and Chinese Spaces in a Postcolonial City (London: Routledge, 2013), The Chinese East End (forthcoming), Beyond the Market: Building Sino-Latin American Cultural Relations (2016), ‘Towards a Decolonisation of Architecture’ (RIBA Journal of Architecture, 2017), and ‘Banyan Tree and Migrant Cities’ (London, John Wiley and Sons, 2013).

While sharing his insights on the research and exhibition, Yat-Ming states, “Urban memories of Ningbo are not just about the history of this city, nor are our memories something fixed and frozen in the past. In my view, it is a process of memory-making where all residents are involved in creating and participating continuously. By re-visiting our past, we are also in the process of making sense of our present and in so doing, inventing our future. I hope that this exhibition will enhance the sense of belonging among Ningbo residents and realises that their own memories and voices of the cities are equally important in the making of the present and future of our city. ”

The Ningbo Urban Memory Lab is an open research platform for students and scholars at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Meanwhile, it has close collaboration with local universities and scholars. The lab has also received support from the FoSE Innovation Lab, Sustainable Built Environment Research Group and Ningbo Studies.

There will be various activities starting from 27th September, such as guided tours of the exhibition by pupil guides and NUML’s members, City Walks, Lego Artwork, “Hand-drawn Ningbo”, public interaction activity etc. All are welcome to participate in the exhibition.