Fine Art nominee

In recent years, Xinjiang has become one of China’s most popular domestic travel destinations, propelled by television and social media. The Kanas Nature Reserve, home to the Tuva people, is especially celebrated for its “exotic” minority culture and picturesque landscapes. Yet this visibility conceals complex change. Tourism has transformed remote villages: new infrastructure has expanded access to education, jobs, and mobility, and economic growth has reduced poverty. At the same time, development often excludes local voices. As studies of ethnic tourism in China suggest, culture is frequently curated for visitors rather than shaped by the community. Traditional Tuva homes become guesthouses and souvenir shops multiply, while institutions preserving lived history remain scarce. Culture is displayed more than sustained.

Allochthonous examines how tourism inscribes itself onto Kanas’s landscapes and cultural life. Through images of sites where nature meets human intervention, the project reflects on shifting belonging—how homeland can become a stage for others, and how familiarity turns estranged.

The work is also personal. After four years in the UK, returning to China brought an unexpected sense of distance. Kanas became a mirror for my own displacement, making this project both an anthropological inquiry and a meditation on identity and home.

Ang is a Chinese fine-art photographer and experimental documentary filmmaker based between London, UK, and Shanghai, China. He began his academic training in Communication in China, where he discovered a deep commitment to visual art, leading him to pursue a master’s degree in experimental anthropological documentary. His photographic work has since been recognised by major international competitions, including PX3 and TIFA, and exhibited in galleries worldwide. In parallel, his recent documentary films have been officially selected for—and awarded at—multiple high-profile international film festivals.

Shaped by a queer identity, multicultural background and an experimental practice, Ang’s work moves fluidly between fine art and documentary. Through a poetic and immersive visual language, he explores the intimate relationships between inner emotional states and external environments, while questioning dominant perceptions, social norms, and the “quiet desperation” of modern life. Across media and formats, his practice consistently interrogates the connections between human consciousness, behaviour, and our interaction with the surrounding world.