Beijing is a rapidly changing city: its architecture, its cultural atmosphere, and, most particularly, its population. Many people—from the countryside and from smaller cities—come to Beijing to work, often leaving after a certain period of time. Sometimes they stay for five months, sometimes for six years, and sometimes for a lifetime. But whenever they leave, they sell all of their possessions at the secondhand markets. These markets are quite small, so, in order to save space, all of these varied objects are piled on top of each other. The juxtapositions are often quite strange: pots and toilets might be right on top of each other. The series Pagoda of the Discarded, in which Qiu Xiaofei sculpts and paints such towers of trash, is intended as a memorial for those who drift in Beijing.