A Dragon by the Pond’s Edge（池漧有条龙）
Community Cultural Programme · Vernacular Expression & Folk ImaginationProject Type
Community Cultural Programme / Folk Narrative & Public Engagement
Time & Location
2023
Chaozhou, Guangdong, China
Organiser
Escape Art Club (EAC)
Role
Project Initiator · Programme Planner
Cai Boxuan (Boosen Tsai)
Background
A Dragon by the Pond’s Edge takes its title from the Teochew phrase “池漧有条龙”, in which 池漧 refers to the edge of a pond—an ordinary, often overlooked space in village and neighbourhood life. The phrase evokes a folk imagination where the extraordinary quietly inhabits the everyday.
The project was conceived as a response to how local culture is frequently reduced to large-scale rituals or iconic symbols. Instead, it asks: what kinds of stories, beliefs, and creativity exist at the margins of daily life? By anchoring itself in a colloquial expression, the programme foregrounded local language as a carrier of cultural knowledge.
Description
Developed as a community-based public cultural activity, the project activated everyday neighbourhood spaces through informal gathering, sharing, and observation. Rather than staging spectacle, A Dragon by the Pond’s Edge embraced modest scale and openness, allowing participants to engage through conversation, imagination, and lived memory.
The programme encouraged participants to reflect on how folk beliefs, rumours, metaphors, and place-based language shape collective imagination. By invoking the image of a “dragon” in an unremarkable setting, the project reframed cultural value as something latent—present not only in grand narratives, but in the textures of ordinary life.
Through its use of dialect, storytelling, and spatial awareness, the project positioned community culture as something continually produced, negotiated, and reimagined.
Outcomes
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Initiated a community-based cultural programme rooted in local language
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Activated everyday neighbourhood space as a site of cultural imagination
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Encouraged public participation through informal dialogue and reflection
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Highlighted the expressive power of vernacular phrases and folk metaphors
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Strengthened Escape Art Club’s practice in small-scale, place-sensitive projects
Significance
- Demonstrated how dialect can function as a curatorial and conceptual tool
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Shifted attention from monumental tradition to everyday cultural expression
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Validated local speech as a form of cultural knowledge
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Expanded community engagement beyond event-based participation
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Reinforced a bottom-up approach to cultural practice
Keywords
Community Culture · Teochew Dialect · Folk Narrative · Vernacular Expression · Everyday Space · Public Engagement · Local Imagination