ABSTRACT
From 2007 to 2010, the author develops plans for the Bishan Project, as captured through sketches in his MoleskineTM notebook, and at the end of that period he makes Bishan home. Though people operated like a Non-Profit Organization (NPO), and, in some aspects, also like a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Bishan Project was registered as a commercial entity. This was due, in part, to the fact that it is exceedingly difficult in China to receive permission to register as an NPO or NGO. To spark a larger movement was not our intent in the Bishan Project and the nuanced and sustained relations between villagers and artists, to which villagers and artists were committed, were not often or easily replicated. The Library bears some resemblance to the Bishan Bookstore and School of Tillers but is directly inspired by the model of the Working Men Institute in the former utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana.
