Before it’s too late (2025)

这个项目是由我此前的长期摄影项目《永远的梦想》延伸而来，为该系列的一个子项目与扩展段落。

“大上海商城”是坐落在郑州市中心的一座已经破产的商场，这座商场曾经以商业与精美的美食步行街为卖点而红极一时。但由于时代的变化和附近商圈的升级，在疫情之后就因经营不善于2022年宣告破产，搁置在了郑州商圈最核心的位置上，像是一个无法被时代完全抹去却也无法重新被激活的废墟。

在过去的这几年里，这座商场依旧维持着最低水平在经营着，这也吸引了很多性少数群体还有地下club开在这里。许多年轻人来到这里，在这些已经荒废的店铺和墙上写下他们在想的一些事：上岸是不是解决问题的办法？对各种社会现象的评论（学生跳楼自杀、教育资源分配不公、经济下行）、精神、自由、爱情。这些问题没有一个标准答案这些并非欧美那种关于帮派或名字的涂鸦，而是极其直接的精神出口。他们把问题喷在墙上，仿佛在为一个已经没有未来的未来留下个人的见证。

我不知道这些文字是否代表着问题本身，或代表着写下它们的人。但至少可能在未来这个地方也许有一天会消失不见的时候，我们还记得在这个地方有这么一群存在过的话语，表达着我们当时所想、所做之事吧。时代滚滚向前，也许我们能留下的东西真的很少，但至少这些照片证明着他们存在过。

This project is a continuation of my ongoing series Endless Dreams. Before It’s Too Late focuses specifically on Dashanghai Shopping Mall, expanding one part of the original project into an independent work.

Dashanghai Shopping Mall once known for its commercial buzz and elaborate food streets, the mall declined as the surrounding districts modernized. After years of mismanagement and the impact of Covid, it finally went bankrupt in 2022. Since then, it has remained abandoned at the very heart of the city—too central to disappear, yet too hollow to truly revive.

In the years that followed, the remains of the mall continued to operate at a minimal, almost collapsing level. This in-between state drew in queer communities and underground clubs, which found temporary shelter in its empty units. Many young people came here and filled the walls and deserted storefronts with the things they were thinking about: Is “making it” really the solution? Comments on social issues—student suicides, unequal education, economic pressure—alongside reflections on freedom, belief, sexuality, and love. These markings are not like Western graffiti about territory or signatures; they are raw emotional outlets, a direct record of a generation confronting a future that already feels foreclosed.

I am not sure whether these words reflect the issues themselves or the people who wrote them. But I do know that one day, when this place is eventually torn down or redeveloped, these voices will likely vanish without a trace. At the very least, these photographs hold onto the fact that they existed—that, in this particular corner of the city, there was once a moment when people wrote down what they thought, feared, and hoped for. Time moves forward relentlessly; we cannot preserve much. But these images are proof that their words were here.