WASTELAND WOMEN’S WRITING PROJECT
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The Wasteland Women's Writing Project was initiated by renowned Chinese filmmaker Teng Congcong, and is supported and carried out by HUs Art. It is a three-month residential writing program exclusively for women, and a bridge between two worlds.
The project exists to give women with the determination to write a comfortable, independent space, free from the interruptions of daily life, unburdened by rent, meals, or the endless small demands that crowd out creative work. But it is also something more: an act of cultural exchange between China and Aotearoa New Zealand, carried out through the most intimate of mediums, the written word.
Women in China carry too many roles, and carry them in complicated ways. Regardless of how successful they are, they are often trapped by the details of daily life, the weight of family responsibility, and layer upon layer of expectation, making it nearly impossible to devote themselves fully to creative work. By bringing these writers to Aotearoa New Zealand, we offer them not only time and space, but encounter: with a different landscape, a different culture, and a different way of imagining what a life can hold. We believe that this encounter changes the writing. And we believe that writing changed in this way has something to offer both cultures in return.
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In 2026, the WWWP enters its second edition, with a focus on writers facing inner and psychological barriers to their work. Following a month-long selection process, four writers have been confirmed for this cohort. They depart on 15 June.
Throughout the conversation after conversation with female writers, we kept returning to the same question: what is it, really, that stands in a woman writer's way?
For a long time, our attention went to material hardship: writers confined to small spaces, stealing hours from lives crowded with obligation. That struggle is real, and it deserves to be seen. But we began to recognise another kind of difficulty, no less heavy, and far harder to name. It is a psychological weight that must be crossed before the writing can begin. Perhaps the subject matter cuts too close. Perhaps the writer stands at a turning point in her life. Perhaps the noise of the internet has been slowly drowning her out. These things accumulate without announcement, settling into a wordless mountain over the souls of women full of talent and sensitivity, keeping them from picking up the pen.
For this edition, we hope the invited writers will immerse themselves in New Zealand's extraordinary landscapes. To play with the wind, confide in the sea, let the sun in. To use the force of nature to move the mountain; to write the cry within, with hands that have touched green grass and living leaves.
May every writer find her way back to a soul that is light and free. May she awaken the voice that has always been there, waiting to be heard.
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“荒原女性写作计划”由中国导演及编剧滕从从发起，并由HUs Art 全程提供支持与执行。这是一个为期三个月的女性专属驻地写作项目，也是连接两个世界的桥梁。
该项目的宗旨是为怀揣写作热忱的女性提供一个舒适、独立的空间，让他们可以远离日常生活的干扰，无需为房租、伙食或那些挤占创作时间的琐碎事务而分心。但它同时也意味着：这是一场使用“文字”这一私密而又紧密的媒介，在中国与新西兰之间展开的文化交流。
中国女性肩负着太多角色，且以复杂的方式履行着这些角色。无论她们多么成功，往往仍被琐碎的日常生活、沉重的家庭责任以及层层叠叠的期待所困，这使得她们几乎无法全身心投入创作。将这些作家带到新西兰，我们将不仅为她们提供时间与空间，更将引导他们与新西兰文化以及对人生可能性不同想象方式的邂逅。我们相信，这种邂逅会改变她们的写作。我们也相信，经由此改变的文字，将反过来为两国文化带来馈赠。
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第二期荒原写作计划自2026年3月开启招募以来，收到了众多优秀女性创作家们的申请。本期最终确认四位年轻作家加入2026年荒原女性写作计划。
在与女性创作者的交流中，我们也在不断反思：女性写作者的困境究竟是什么。
过去，我们将大量的目光和大篇幅的关注都给到了一些只能窝居狭小空间、在被琐碎生活挤压的时间间隙艰难写作的物理上窘迫的作家。却不曾足够关注另一种困境：那是一种需要迈过去心中和笔下沟壑的心理困境：也许是因为题材过于犀利，也许是正站在生命的分岔口，也许是为网络的嘈杂而窒息。正是这样的说不清道不明的重量，渐渐积成了无声大山，沉重的压在那些充满才华和灵气的姑娘们灵魂中，让他们迟迟无法拿起笔。
这一期的荒原写作计划，我们希望受邀的作家们能深度感受新西兰美丽而多变的自然景观与独特地貌，在这片因为人与人之间拥有足够远的物理距离的土地上，感受那种对心灵靠近的渴望与热情。和风玩耍，和海谈心，和太阳嬉戏，用自然的力量挪走心中的山；用轻拂过青草绿叶的手来写下内心的呐喊。
愿每位创作者都能找回自己轻盈而自由的灵魂，觉醒你振聋发聩的声音。
2026 Residency Locations
This residency has also been made possible through the generous support of individuals in New Zealand who share a deep enthusiasm for fostering cultural exchange between China and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Through their kindness, the writers will have access to residences in Devonport and on Waiheke Island, allowing them to experience the full breadth of New Zealand's distinct cultural and natural environment as the backdrop for their work.
Devonport Accommodation
Waiheke Island Accommodation
HUs Art Residency
2026 Invited Writers in Residence
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Du Mu Qian Hui
As a writer, I have long been drawn to observing and documenting the lives of women — their bodies, their labour, the textures of their daily existence. My work often begins with arrival at a specific place: a bathhouse, a dinner table, a seat among others. I want to understand how the great questions of human life settle into the body, the language, and the daily order of a single woman.
作为创作者，我也一直在进行与女性身体、劳动有关的观察与记录。它们往往从抵达一个具体的现场开始：澡堂、饭桌、坐席间，我想知道宏大的生命议题本身如何落在一个女人的身体、语言和生活秩序里。
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Serena
Serena is a writer and commercial media practitioner working in both Chinese and English. Her experience across media, NGO, and fieldwork settings in Hong Kong, Beijing, Wuhan, Yushu, and Melbourne has brought her into contact with a wide range of women's experiences and communities, which continue to form the source material for her writing.
Serena是一名中英文写作者和商业媒体从业者。在香港、北京、武汉、玉树、墨尔本等地的媒体、NGO与田野工作的经历，让她接触到复杂多元的女性经验和社群，这构成她持续写作的主题来源。
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Wumao (pen name)
For reasons that cannot be fully spoken, Wumao's writing came to a halt. She had developed a fear of writing itself: before setting down a single sentence, she would already be asking whether a line, a plot, a character might invite controversy. And creativity, she came to understand, cannot survive in the presence of fear. This is how she describes herself: a frightened writer of online fiction.
因一些无法言说的原因，五猫(化名)的写作曾一度搁置，因为她对写作产生了恐惧感，在下笔之前就会自我审查，这句话这个剧情是否会引发争议，而人类出于恐惧是无法创作的。所以，她对自己的自我介绍是，一个恐惧的网络小说写手。
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Chen A-Q
Formerly a journalist, then an employee of an international organisation, now attempting to write fiction. She wants to write about the collision between a person and their fate — about how one arrives at self-realisation, or does not.
原来干过新闻，后来去了国际组织，现在尝试写小说。想写人跟命运的冲撞，人如何完成自我实现，或者不完成。
2025 Invited Writers in Residence
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Zhou Hui
Born in the 1970s, she left for Shenzhen at eighteen to work, taking on roles as a clerk, business assistant, and in sales. At forty, she resigned, and settled in a coastal village on the eastern edge of Shenzhen, giving herself over to reading and writing. In 2024, she published her first book, a collection of essays titled Those Who Knew Me Have Slowly Forgotten Me.
七零后，十八岁到深圳打工，做过文员、商务助理、销售等。四十岁辞职，居深圳东部海边村庄，投入阅读与创作。2024年出版散文集《认识我的人慢慢忘了我》
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Liu Wanzhao
A reader of women writers, a patient of Dr Chen, currently in treatment for a fear of colour. She has been writing full-time since 2021. A recipient of the Hong Kong Young Writers Award, her published works include the novel Dissolution, the novellas Broken Ground and Nothing But Nouns, and the short stories The Chosen Stillness and I Think You Are Dying.
女作家读者，陈医生患者，正在治疗对色彩的恐惧。2021年开始全职写作。曾获香港青年文学奖，发表过长篇小说《消弥》、中篇小说《破地儿》、《名词而已》、短篇小说《被选中的静止》、《我想你正在死去》等。
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San Pangzi (pen name)
She left a government position in 2001 to start her own business. In 2020, she turned to non-fiction writing. In 2023, she published her first book, Stories from Wuai Street, and the following year signed away its film and television rights.
2001年辞去公职创业，2020年开始进行非虚构创作，2023出版个人第一本非虚构类书籍《五爱街往事》并于次年签约影视版权。