Xiaozha
Classic Hongda

Quanzhou
Spacious 2 seater electric vehicle with matching security lock and storage basket.

As I carefully wrap my Hui-An hat to send back to Hong Kong, I am once again pondering  a question that has been milling around in my head since the beginning of the China trip. In China, what gives an object value? Or more specifically, what do I value in an object from China? The ideas I had brought with me from London about appreciating locally and hand-made objects have all be thrown into question out here. In China, “Made in China” is no longer the imported product, it is what is made locally. You also suddenly realise that most things that are “Made in China” are hand-made, only at lightning speeds by workers producing identical objects as if they were machines.

So why am I so precious about this hat?  Perhaps it is because I know that these hats are made only to order as it takes this skilled craftsman a month to make each one. Perhaps it is because I know that once this generation of hatmakers stop making these hats, they will no longer be made, the younger generation have not the patience to learn or practise this craft. Maybe in China that is what I am starting to value, “time”. The time and commitment of the maker gives me the responsibility as the owner to give the object the same amount of  respect and care as they did. In a world that is always in a hurry to get somewhere, time is becoming more and more scarce. I wonder if China, in it’s hurry to catch up with the West, is losing something along the way, the value of Time.

Quanzhou
In a shady alleyway behind an old mosque.

Password protected.

Minimalist.

Not so minimalist.

With the Chinese struggling to understand my limited version of Mandarin, my friend has been having to work hard as a translator… and brought me this as a gift.

I had to have it translated, “The whole world should speak Mandarin”.