Xingyu Li, a “Digital Nomad,” Spent Three Years Living in a Campervan Collecting Vanishing Music

Xingyu Li, an independent music producer and sound artist born in the post-85 generation, is based in Beijing. Since 2020, he has fully moved both his home and studio into a campervan, which he named “Mercury.” Driving westward from Beijing to Shaya, a small desert town on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, he set out to search for and collect folk songs that are on the verge of disappearing. This October, Li drove Mercury across China, traveling between Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen for a tour and exhibition installations. DECO met him at a countryside campsite on the outskirts of Shanghai and spoke with him about how he deals with the many uncertainties of life on the road. Li simply smiled and said, “Just hit the road first. Many things only reveal themselves once you’re on the journey, a bit like The Motorcycle Diaries of Che Guevara.”