A Singaporean artist showcases the global village in Beijing

Ming Wong discusses the future in the video Next Year/L'Annee Prochaine. [Photo/China Daily]

The compound of Cite Bourgogne was built in 1930 and named bugao li (alley) in Chinese. The historic site preserves traditional pai lou (arched gates) and restored shikumen-style buildings with the long laundry poles, typical of Shanghai's old neighborhoods.

Wong didn't clear out spectators when filming at the locations. The takes in the park show in the backdrop elderly people playing mahjong; in the scenes at Cite Bourgogne, residents cast curious glances at Wong and another actor.

Wong presents in the work a confusion of time and space.

"It looks quite vintage. It makes you feel nostalgic for the sentiment of Europe in the 1930s and '40s. But if you watch attentively, you will find the work is all about the future," he says.

"Walking down the lanes in Shanghai, I don't know exactly where I am, whether I'm in the past or at present, in China or France, in an upscale or underprivileged area.

"Conflict and instability, that's what I want the work to be with," Wong adds.

Wong's interest in cultural identity and time also led him to study Cantonese Opera and sci-fi movies. His progress in researching the two fields, which are seemingly irrelevant, triggered the birth of Scenography for a Chinese Science-Fiction Opera, the other work displayed.