You Li
︎︎︎Website
︎︎︎Instagram



KASHGAR

August 2021



'In 2010, I started to document the old city of Kashgar, trying to recreate this city on paper with photography.

Kashgar has been an important trading center since the time of the Silk Road, linking Central Asia and China. 10 years ago, the old city of Kashgar still retained the original streets and blocks found in old Islamic cities in Central Asia. History endowed the old city with interconnected streets that resembled a spider web, and the people living in it had a similarly complex social structure. At that time, the adobe houses of earth construction were challenged by time and the changing climate; about 85% of the old city was planned to be renovated or reconstructed.



Now, 10 years later, this old city has been reconstructed into a tourist city that is much different than its old look. But a decade ago, with my gaze, I paid a tribute in advance to the old Kashgar and its history while I was there -- just as you are gazing at this city from another city, far away today.'