During the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, professor and curator Andrea Baldini of Nanjing University envisioned a digital art exhibition that would unify global voices through shared grief and resilience. But to honor that vision, the online platform had to work equally well in China and abroad, a significant technical feat. Without a solution that could deliver rich media and load reliably on both sides of the digital divide, Finding Meaning risked reaching only half its intended worldwide audience.
Our approach
We built a globally accessible WordPress platform hosted in Hong Kong, a strategic midpoint that ensures fast performance in China and worldwide. Through smart video routing, custom content architecture, and thoughtful development, we gave Finding Meaning a seamless online experience where art and technology converge across borders.
Connecting the China-global divide
Most online platforms struggle to serve both Chinese and international users well (check out our blog post “How to create a website in China” for more on that). Hosting in China means the rest of the world struggles to load it. Host abroad and it slows to a crawl, or disappears completely, within the Great Firewall.
For Finding Meaning, exclusion wasn’t an option. With artists from six continents and audiences ranging from Nanjing University students to global viewers, the platform needed to work everywhere. We chose a server in Hong Kong, a geographic and digital midpoint between mainland China and the rest of the world. The result was fast, reliable access for everyone, no matter where they connect from.
A journey through grief and meaning
Finding Meaning invites visitors into a shared emotional experience shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. At its core are three interwoven threads: the Emotional Timeline, which transforms stock market data into a meditation on time and feeling; DABDA, an exploration of the five stages of grief through student-chosen artifacts; and Six, a gallery of international artworks responding to loss and hope.
To give this layered narrative room to breathe online, we designed a front-end structure to guide visitors thoughtfully through each theme. We integrated a clean, restrained visual language to ensure the focus stays entirely on the emotional weight of the artistic works. Because physical gathering was impossible, the virtual space was the only way to gather these global voices. We made sure the experience honored that original intent.
Empowering curators to shape their story
Finding Meaning was never meant to be static. As new reflections emerged and international artists continued to respond to the evolving pandemic, the virtual exhibition needed to grow and change.
We built a WordPress backend that puts curatorial control in the hands of Andrea Baldini and his team at Nanjing University. Using intuitive custom fields and modular content blocks, they can add artist submissions, update the Emotional Timeline, or edit DABDA entries without writing code or waiting for developer support. By architecting a system that’s both powerful and approachable, we ensured the platform could evolve alongside the conversation it hosts.
Video that works everywhere
Video is essential to the website’s experience, but delivering it reliably across borders presented a real challenge. YouTube is inaccessible in mainland China, and hosting videos directly on the server would incur high bandwidth costs and risk slow load times.
We managed this with a geolocation-aware video routing solution. When a visitor loads a page, the system detects their location. Viewers in China see videos from Youku, while everyone else sees them from YouTube. This ensures smooth playback for all viewers while keeping infrastructure costs manageable, so the focus stays on the art.
Technology with meaning
Finding Meaning emerged from a moment of collective rupture caused by COVID-19. Our role wasn’t just to build a website, but to ensure that this moment could be witnessed, reflected upon, and shared worldwide.
Every technical decision, from server location to content structure, was made to support the core goal of giving space for human stories to be seen and heard, no matter where you are. In a time of disconnection, the online platform became a quiet act of reconnection.
“Maples Design was always keen to listen to our needs and requests in a very positive way. The result is outstanding, better than I anticipated.”
