Stories Behind Shengze’s Regeneration is a mini-documentary series produced by Urban Lab 8 for the Canhuali Design Festival held in 2024 at Canhuali in Shengze Town, Jiangsu Province – a community regeneration event co-hosted by Canhuali Community and Urban China. The five short films are themed ‘Everyday-Heritage,’ ‘Days and Nights in Longtangs,’ ‘Life by the Canals,’ ‘Food is Heaven,’ and ‘Workshop Retrospect’. Filmed in Canhuali, the documentary displays the deep cultural heritage embedded in the everyday life of Shengze Town, and how the community regeneration workshop explores, presents and use these elements.

The initial purpose of the mini-documentary was twofold: First, to document the rich historical legacy and unique cultural charm found in Shengze Town's everyday life that could not be fully captured through words and static images in the workshop’s final research and design presentations; second, to bring back the often-missing rural cultural depth in urban community regeneration projects, as a key complementary theme to the design festival.

Compared to large cities, the core difference – and distinct value – of town and county-level community regeneration lies in their ability to provide unique, locally rooted cultural and ecological samples. This includes the relationship between people and the land (topography/dwelling form/architecture), between people and the livelihoods passed down through generations (local products/industries), and between individuals themselves. When regeneration strategies and models originated from large cities are applied to towns and counties, these most valuable elements are often lost in the process of abstraction and translation, resulting in superficiality and sameness across spatial regeneration and tourism development projects.

The mini-documentary, therefore, emphasises presenting the working process of the workshop rather than its outcome. It aims to open a dialogue on these precious local heritage and cultural meanings, allowing them to be better inherited, translated, and communicated. Through interviews, the documentary connects local residents with researchers, practitioners, and the general public who are curious about the place, as well as local governments dedicated to preserving and revitalising these heritages. The films also show how the workshop engages practices such as experiencing, understanding, teaching, learning, reflecting, questioning, researching, creating, and disseminating, to bring in youthful perspectives to reinterpret and reimagine these local, everyday concepts. These efforts suggest that ‘regeneration’ should go beyond material and spatial values to include the significance of cultural transmission and inheritance.

我们在盛泽做更新 是 城市八部 为江苏省盛泽镇蚕花里于2024年举行的蚕花里社区设计节制作的 微纪录片 系列，设计节由蚕花里和 《城市中国》 共同主办。该系列包括五个短片，分别以“日常遗产”“弄堂日夜”“与水共生”“饮食为天”和“工作坊回顾”为主题，以蚕花里社区为场景，展示了沁润在盛泽镇的日常生活中深远的文化传承，以及社区更新工作坊如何挖掘、呈现和再利用这些内容。

拍摄短片的初衷，一是为了记录工作坊过程中探寻到的、具有丰富历史传承与独特文化魅力的盛泽市井生活遗产，这些内容在最终的研究和设计成果中难以通过文字和静态图像呈现；二是为了将城市社区更新中往往缺失的乡土人文深度作为重要的主题带回本次设计节的讨论。与大城市的社区更新相比，这些市镇、县城更新的核心区别、同时也是独特价值在于它们能够提供特殊的在地人文生态样本，包括人与土地（地域/空间/建筑）的关系，人与世代传承的营生（产业/物产）的关系，以及人与人之间的关系。将大城市的更新思维和模式套用于市镇乡县的更新，往往会使这些最有价值的部分在抽象化、符号化转译的过程中流失，导致空间更新开发和文旅创生变得浮浅和同质化。

因此， 微纪录片 重点呈现了更新工作坊的过程，而非仅结果，其目的是为这些珍贵的地方遗产和乡土人文内涵打开一个对话窗口，连接那些对这些文化耳熟能详的老居民，充满好奇的研究者、实践者和普罗大众，以及致力于传承和振兴这些文化的地方政府，让它们能够更好被地转化、自然地输出并传达。影片也呈现了工作坊如何通过体验、理解、教授、学习、反思、提问、调研、创造和传播等身体实践，引入年轻的视角，赋予这些当地人耳濡目染、日常平凡的在地性概念新的意义，突显“更新”不仅仅是物质和空间的再造，更是文化的传承与复新的深远意义。

制片：崔国

拍摄：黄家骏 施俊楠 郭子恒 大悦 许诺

录音：刘诗怡 汤雨杭

剪辑：薛琰文

Producer: Cui Guo
Cinematography: Huang Jiajun, Shi Junan, Guo Ziheng, Da Yue, Xu Nuo
Interview: Liu Shiyi, Tang Yuhang
Editing: Xue Yanwen

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Mini-Documentary: Stories Behind Shengze’s Regeneration

微纪录片：我们在盛泽做更新