Who do you come from? Who do you carry with you? Inspired by the questions asked by Mirna Bamieh in previous iterations of Sour Things workshops, we embark on a field trip to neighboring Sanlin Town to learn about where we are situated and about who and what came before us, before NYU Shanghai was built in Sanlin neighborhood and before it became "Qiantan." History spans a thousand years in the town of Sanlin, where traditional skills and embodied knowledges from handloom cloth, embroidery, porcelain carving, to dragon dances, temple fairs, pickles, and Benbang cuisine, intertwine with the life of new residents who were relocated to the area more than a decade ago.

Discover the history of Sanlin Old Street on a guided walking tour with Sanlin Old Street city walk docent LI Qing and experience its intangible cultural heritage. The walk will end with a visit to Sanlin Traditional Pickles, where third-generation pickle master JIN Ruijun shares the art and history of local pickling. Learn about traditional techniques and their stories in this immersive experience blending history, culture, and culinary legacies.

Language: Chinese.
The exact meeting point on Sanlin Old Street will be announced later.

Free and open to the public. 

Space is limited. Registration is required. To register, please click on the “Register” button at the top of this page or scan the QR code below. 

In conjunction with Sour Things, an exhibition by Mirna Bamieh.

The exhibition Sour Things and related events are presented as the first season of the ICA's artistic research program Lightless Fires (2024–26), exploring fermentation as a figure and technique of collective memory, autonomous archiving, and writing history.