“The railway is actually like history, circling round and round,” professor Zhang Ming, the author of The Revolution of 1911: Shaking China says in the Three-tracked Train, “the railway is moving forward, so should history.” From the 20 km/h to 280 km/h, this collage of imaginary trains geopolitically links Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong under the shadow of Sun Yat-sen, commissioned by Zuni Icosahedron for an exhibition “The Railway Poetry Project: The Train to the 1911 Revolution”, curated by Liu Wai Tong in 2011.

With interview of poets, scholars as well as passengers and activists along the routes, this on-the-railroad docuvideo tries to intertwine and explore three related themes from historical introspection to contemporary context: 1) train, a symbol of modernization; 2) creativity, synonymous with freewill of individual narrative; 3) revolution, as a ‘re-activated’ spirit in the new generation of social movements like the environmental issue in China, the preservation of ‘Juan cun’ (military dependents’ village) culture in Taiwan and the Land Justice League in Hong Kong. The Railway Protection Movement in Sichuan 1911 triggered the overthrow of the Qing government, a hundred years later, the anti-express rail link Protest becomes a departure of new civil movements – against the decadence of Hong Kong. This last steam locomotive is a dedication to all Sisyphus.

「鐵路確實也像歷史一樣，不停循環來回轉。」《辛亥:搖晃的中國》作者張嗚教 授在《三軌車》中說，「鐵路在進步，歷史也要進步。」從每小時二十公里四川小 火車到二百八十公里和諧號，這個火車影像的地緣政治拼貼，藉孫中山之名將中 國、台灣和香港連接起來，2011辛亥革命百周年時受進念委約，為廖偉棠策劃的「火 車詩歌計劃:開往辛亥年的火車」展覽而拍攝。

沿線鐵路行走的紀錄，採訪了中港台詩人、學者、乘客和社運分子，嘗試從歷史反 思到當代視點交織探問三個互涉主題:一，象徵現代化進程的火車;二，代表個人 自主敘述的創作;三，被重新「活化」的革命精神，體現在當代社運中——中國環 保問題、台灣眷村文化保存和香港的「土地正義聯盟」。1911年四川「保路運動」成 為推翻滿清政府的導火線，百年後，反高鐵抗爭亦成為抵禦香港墮落的公民運動一 個起點，以此古老蒸汽火車頭向所有不認命的西西弗斯致意。