She Drifted, and the Study of How She Drifted is an interactive digital archive that traces five narratives of female migrant workers in southern China between 1950 and 1990. Through fragmented storytelling, layered interaction, and visual interpretation, the project reimagines the archival form as a drifting, dynamic space—where memory, history, and emotion interlace across shifting timelines.

Instead of linear entries, users navigate the archive through a river of floating keywords—fragments drawn from across all stories. By clicking a word, viewers enter a narrative thread: a short passage opens, with the option to gradually reveal additional layers, including historical context and visual interpretations that embody the missing artifacts of women’s undocumented lives. This non-chronological, user-curated path mirrors the unpredictable journey of migration itself—drifting, gathering, assembling meaning from fragments.

Blending text, image, interactive typography, and motion, the archive honors voices often excluded from official records. It transforms personal oral histories into an affective, participatory experience—inviting viewers not only to witness but to co-construct the narratives, tracing their own connections across the stories. In doing so, She Drifted expands the possibilities of what an archive can hold, feel, and reveal: a living, drifting constellation of women’s strength, tenderness, resistance, and adaptation across time and space.

Elly Lee

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