Wanting to watch the Dalu Youth Live Music Festival starred by influential Chinese rock bands like Omnipotent Youth Society and RE-TROS, five friends gathered in the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang in January 2025.

The city is to some extent, Will’s hometown, and also Shane’s as well. They go back to visit their grandparents every Spring Festival, but only during the Spring Festival. It was the first time they went back during winter break, and they enjoyed the city, a lot.

Before graduating, the friends decided to leave a legacy for UWCCSC’s music scene. An EP production started with their intro song, Shoes City, written for the decline of the pillar industry of the city while fusing the members’ genres of expertise.

I didn't start living in Wenzhou until high school.
During the summer, my dad—a native Wenzhou local—took me to the shoe market. Hearing him recount its millennium-era glory, I'd never seen him so proud, yet his memories couldn't conjure the ghosts of bustling crowds. At the center of the open-air market, what resembled a fish pond was stained with water marks, dust, and the blackened remains of algae. Ceramic tiles lay covered in grime, failing to reflect the cold glow of fluorescent lights; haphazardly piled shoe boxes bore the same dull finish as the shop owners' expressions. I found no sense of belonging in this scene. I too would follow my cousins' path to study abroad, perhaps staying to work there. Everyone had gone to New York, to Rome, leaving only the older generation behind. The dreams of the young, like those leather shoes shipped overseas, were packed into containers and never returned.
Identity seemed constructed by forces beyond my control—like attending school in Jiangsu-Zhejiang across the entire country, or having a father who happened to be from Wenzhou. No matter where I belong, I mourn the end of this city's era, yet I'm profoundly uplifted by the lingering warmth its people leave behind and the indomitable spirit it embodies.

-Will's WeChat Post, Translated with DeepL.com