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# Project Description Voices of Roots Guantao Yi Summary Final work Hi! I’m Guantao Yi, a service designer exploring how community knowledge, culture, and everyday experiences can shape more inclusive forms of design. My practice lies at the intersection of user research, community engagement, prototyping, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. I focus on designing with people rather than for them — listening to stories, uncovering local wisdom, and turning insights into grounded, meaningful design outcomes. Hi! I’m Guantao Yi, a service designer exploring how community knowledge, culture, and everyday e... College London College of Communication Course MA Service Design Graduation year 2025 This service system, co-created with the Nisu Yi Ethnic Culture Centre in Mengzi, Yunnan, China aims to revitalize the endangered Nisu Yi language. Through a year-long journey of workshops, digital archives, toolkits, and community festivals, the service connects people with their linguistic roots. It encourages the community to celebrate, document, and sustain their mother tongue, strengthening confidence and pride in their language. Final work Overview of Main Service Touchpoints What is the service? Voices of Roots is a year-round, community-led service system that supports the revitalisation of the Nisu Yi language through online archiving, place-based celebration and promotion. It provides the tools, touchpoints, and processes that help communities document, share, and sustain their mother tongue in everyday life. Who is the service for? Nisu Yi community / Nisu Yi Ethnic Culture Centre (NYECC) / Other minority language communities / Urban Audiences & tourists Where does the service take place? Online — via the NYECC WeChat Official Account, digital workshop archive, reflection tools, and the Nisu Yi Digital Museum. In Yongning & Renhou village — through community-led language workshops and the annual Nisu Yi Language Festival. In urban public spaces — through leaflets and posters placed at the Honghe Prefectural Museum and Guanlan Subdistrict Community Service Center. Degree Show Exhibition In the exhibition, the researcher presented stories from the fieldwork to reveal the challenges and opportunities within the community. Through her reflective and nuanced narration, the display also conveyed the emotional connections she developed with community members throughout the project. Research and process What we eat in a year This Voices is from Nisu Yi Community. It mainly describes the daily life style of Nisu Yi Community in Yongning and Renhou Village, China. What to Eat in a Year Bajun Li What do we eat in a year? In a year, there’s something to eat every month. On the sixteenth day of the first month, Aunties and grannies come back from New Year visits — there’s meat to eat, and rice cakes to eat. In February and March, we eat fresh green vegetables. In April, we eat mulberries. In May, we eat hard peaches. In June, we eat duoyi fruit. In July, we eat watermelons. In August, we eat peanuts and flatbreads. In September, we eat olives. In October, we eat tomatoes. In November and December, there are weddings and celebrations — there’s food to eat, and drinks to share. Share this project This service system, co-created with the Nisu Yi Ethnic Culture Centre in Mengzi, Yunnan, China aims to revitalize the endangered Nisu Yi language. Through a year-long journey of workshops, digital archives, toolkits, and community festivals, the service connects people ... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Access, Ability & Inclusivity Archives & Collections Community Language
# Links ## Official page - https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/685227/cover ## External - https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/settings?trk=d_flagship3 - https://www.instagram.com/ygtao_ - mailto:guantaoyi@gmail.com - https://forms.arts.ac.uk/client-enquiry-form/ - https://portfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/30222638/final-work-1.pdf - https://portfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/30222630/Report_Tao_voices-of-Roots-1.pdf - https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F685227%2Fcover&text=Voices+of+Roots - https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F685227%2Fcover&media=https%3A%2F%2Fportfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F12%2F16152410%2Fphoto-template-%25E5%25B7%25B2%25E6%2581%25A2%25E5%25A4%258D-14.jpg&description=Voices+of+Roots