Voyage
The second gathering of Wan Hai Hotel, titled Voyage, delves into the rich maritime history of the pan-Asia-Pacific region through nautical notes and the everyday lives of seafarers. It traces the routes of seafaring communities who, guided by currents, tides and monsoons, navigated the "invisible" sea routes. These communities identified the shapes of islands amidst the waves, decoded star charts, and passed down their embodied, nature-driven wisdom through secret nautical notes shared within their circles. The emergence of these bustling waterways is intricately tied to the transformative formation of land and ocean, as well as maritime colonial expansions. These treacherous waters have borne witness to transnational migrations driven by resource extraction, confrontations between imperial powers, and the precarious lives of seafaring nomads.
Voyage offers a full day of events, including a lecture and conversation on films. Maritime historian Liu Yijie presents a lecture unraveling the hidden knowledge within the 16th-century nautical guide: Voyage with Tailwind. Meanwhile, the conversation on films Drifting with works from Stephanie Comilang, Amiu and Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina focuses on the experiences of sailors, shipbuilders, seafarers, transoceanic migrants, and nomadic communities—exploring their encounters at shipyards and waterways and the complex histories behind these interactions.
Lecture: Liu Yijie: Voyage with Tailwind
Over millennia of seafaring, the Chinese developed transformative navigational technologies, inventing tools such as the compass, watertight bulkheads, the stern rudder, and a comprehensive maritime guiding system. Shunfeng Xiangsong, which translates to Voyage with Tailwind, is a secret nautical note commonly referred to as the Zhenlu Bu (Compass Route Book). Guarded by folk seafaring communities for centuries, this rare Ming dynasty navigation manuscript is the only surviving example of its kind. In 1936, scholar Xiang Da brought it to scholarly attention after transcribing the manuscript from Oxford's Bodleian Library and returning it to China. Building on earlier studies, Professor Liu Yijie, who specializes in maritime history, re-edited and annotated the original text, culminating in the publishing of A Study of Voyage with Tailwind. In this lecture, Professor Liu uncovers the hidden knowledge preserved in this historic manual through the lens of maritime history, exploring its depictions of topography and maritime routes with the aid of historical documents and ancient maps.
Conversation on Films: Drifting
The conversation on films Drifting presents works from Stephanie Comilang, Amiu and Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina. Search for Life (2024) is a film by Filipino-Canadian artist Stephanie Comilang tracing shipping routes used by Spanish conquistadors after the colonization of the Philippines. It brings together global maritime cargo movements from the perspective of Filipino seafarers. The stories are told by interwoven voices of various figures, including the historian Guadalupe Pinzón Ríos; Philippine butterfly specialist Aster T. Badon; Michael John Díaz and painter Joar Songcuya, both Filipino seafarers; a boy named Simón from Michoacán, Mexico; and, of course, the voice of the monarch butterfly. The documentary Shapowei (2015), co-directed by Amiu, follows maritime archaeologist Xu Lu, who is based in Shapowei, as he retraces the region's rich seafaring history. Through the oral histories of master shipbuilders and seafarers, the film explores the turbulent voyages of the past and rediscovers this ancient port that once marked the coastline's edge. The wooden sailing boats and sheltering docks, now gradually fading from view, stand as testaments to the once-thriving waterways that connected seafarers and coastal communities, shaping a unique maritime culture. Bila Anda Tiba Anda Menyesal (When You Arrive You'll Regret) (2022) focuses on the maritime life and the complexity of matters that accompany conflict interest in one of Asia's busiest waters, the Strait of Malacca. Indonesian artist duo Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina conducted visits to several islands in Riau Archipelago especially to Batam Island, a region that was once projected to become an industrial area in the 70s but now is facing tough challenges with social problems and tangling of interests and power centralized in Java Island, which created uncontrolled distortion. Observations were made by sea travel and encounters with equator passers from Nusantara. The rise of issues accompanied geopolitical turmoil such as borders, colonial period, sultanate period and globalization become the initial thought of retelling outside the mainstream narrative. The roundtable conversation brings together Shapowei director Amiu, the film's protagonist Xu Lu, and Zhang Wen, an associate professor from Shanghai Ocean University known for her recent fieldwork in the Zhoushan Archipelago, as guest speakers.
航途
航途环海旅社第二期“航途”从泛亚太地区历史上的航行图谱和随海浮沉的个体生命出发，构想一场从船寮和海上行旅出发的情境。随着洋流和季风变化，海民驾驶大小航船，穿梭于海上那些“不可见”的航道，并在沉浮中辨认出岛屿形状、辨认夜空里“谜语”般的星图，并让充满自然感知的具身认知在民间的航行秘本中流传。这些繁忙水域的形成与海洋和陆地的自然形成以及航海时代殖民权力的扩张不无关联。凶险海域见证为资源开采和权力争夺的跨国流动，也目睹海上游牧民族的遭遇与日常。“航途”带来了一天集讲座和映后谈的活动。航海史研究学者刘义杰通过一场讲座拆解16世纪民间航海指南《顺风相送》，“浮生环流”映后谈带来艺术家及导演斯蒂芬妮·康米兰、阿谬以及艺术家组合伊旺·艾迈特&蒂塔·萨利娜的作品，聚焦由海员、造船者、讨海人、跨洋移民和海上牧民在船寮和水域要道的遭遇及其背后的复杂历史情境。
讲座：刘义杰：顺风相送
在数千年的航海中，中国人发明了航海罗盘、水密隔舱、船尾舵和一套自成体系航海指南系统。《顺风相送》是一本舟子秘本，民间又称之为“针路薄”，这本隐秘的航海指南长期以来都藏于民间航海家手中，是目前仅有的明代海道针经抄本。自1936年向达先生从英国牛津大学博德利图书馆转抄回国后，即引起学界的重视。航海史专家刘义杰先生根据《顺风相送》原抄本，在研究的基础上重新校勘和补注，发表了《<顺风相送>研究》一书。讲座邀请刘义杰教授用航海史的视野，以历史文献和古地图方式，分享舟子秘本中的山情水势和针路航线。
映后谈：浮生环流
“浮生环流”映后谈带来艺术家及导演斯蒂芬妮•康米兰、阿谬以及艺术家组合伊旺·艾迈特&蒂塔·萨利娜的作品。《寻找生命》（2024）是加拿大菲律宾裔艺术家斯蒂芬妮·康米兰的作品，从菲律宾海员的视角出发，勾勒出全球海运货物流动的轨迹，追溯了西班牙殖民菲律宾后所开辟的航运路线。故事通过多个角色的声音交织叙述展开，包括历史学家瓜达卢佩·平松·里奥斯、菲律宾蝴蝶专家阿斯特·T·巴顿、菲律宾海员迈克尔·约翰·迪亚兹和画家乔阿尔·松库亚、来自墨西哥米却肯的小男孩西蒙，以及影片的主角——帝王蝶。纪录片《沙坡尾》（2015）由导演阿谬跟随居住在沙坡尾的海洋考古学家许路的脚步，在造船世家师傅和讨海人的口述记录中追溯历史中动荡的航行，重新发掘这一段曾是沙滩末端的古老港口。逐渐消失在当代视野中的木帆船船寮和避风坞是曾经繁盛水路流通的印证，让航途中的讨海人和沿岸建立起一个特别的社群。《当你抵达时你会懊悔 》（2022）影片聚焦于亚洲最繁忙的水域之一马六甲海峡：这里充斥着利益纷争和航海生活的复杂问题。印尼艺术家组合伊旺·艾迈特和蒂塔·萨利娜多次造访位于马六甲海峡廖内群岛的各个岛屿，尤其是巴淡岛（Batam Island)——曾在70年代被规划成为工业化的陆地，如今受到爪哇岛集中利益纠纷和权力斗争等社会问题。艺术家通过海上行旅的持续观察，与从跨越赤道的马来群岛航行者们交流，涉及与地缘政治有关的边界争议、殖民历史、苏丹王朝以及全球化等议题，试图在主流叙事的框架之外寻找诉说的可能性。映后谈邀请《沙坡尾》导演阿谬和主人公许路、近年来在舟山群岛进行田野的环境人类学者张雯來对话，由“航途”系列项目共同策划人龙奕瑭和上海外滩美术馆策展人钱诗怡主持。
