Pre-packaged food is so integral to our lives. So much so, that most of us know wasabi only as the paste out of the tube. In fact, it is made from finely grating the root of the wasabi plant. And of course it comes in different qualities. The seller shows us just two, the lower quality one shown above, and the more expensive one below.
We are becoming so far removed from where our food comes from, and with it the respect for the difficulty in production. Large volumes of fruits and vegetables are wasted daily because they do not met aesthetic requirements. Consumers select to buy only the those deemed a suitable size and shape. It is time we celebrate variety in nature, and accept that vegetables, like people, come in all shapes and sizes.
After stopping to watch a sombre wedding parade at the shrine, I pass through streets dotted with candy-coloured girls who look like they have been lifted out of a manga cartoon. Thanks to the media, Japan has a lot to live up to. Wandering around Harajuku on a leisurely Sunday morning, I get the feeling that my expectations will be met. A small place filled with a strong sense of tradition and unusual extremes. This will be a city visit with a bipolar personality.
Back in the 70s, being a printing technician was a well earning profession. In pockets of Sheung Wan still remain a few printers, but many have closed down, or will in this coming year. Digital technology has changed the nature and speed of printing, and rising rents are forcing printers to sell their machines and retire. This printer tells us how their machine is only for printing numbers (such as on memberships cards or receipts), their next door neighbour does the foiling, and another printer does the letters… It is truly a complex collaboration for even the most seemingly simple things. Paper products have become so disposable as a result of the speed and convenience of digital production. If our forests are to stand a chance of survival, perhaps we need to slow the process down again.
It’s not so unusual in China to open the menu of a temple restaurant to find an array of imitation meats; fake duck, fake chicken, fake fish… Not that there is anything wrong with imitating meat, it is however a strange concept given buddhist beliefs. So it is somewhat refreshing when you stumble across a temple canteen in the hills that serves simple flavourful vegetarian food that is not pretending to be anything else.
AiJiLun inspects my crudely drawn sketches of ideas for birchbark items, somewhat baffled at her perceived complexity of them. I met her just under 2 years ago (More is Equal to Less). She has no recollection of who I am, oblivious to the fact that it was the few days I spent watching her work and talking to her niece-in-law (Fire of Knowledge) that I became fascinated with the Oronchen and birchbark world.
It was this fascination that initiated my return to Northern China and to Tuohe. As I wandered around this tiny village, recognising faces but no longer the buildings, I am struck by how much yet how little had changed. Bulldozed and rebuilt beyond recognition was where I stayed on my previous visit (The Great Firewall). Most of the residents have been or are in the process of being relocated to a large area just on the outskirts of the town in rows of tidy identical terraced bungalows. Driving slowly down one of the lanes, we attempt to drop off an uncle of a friend who has trouble recognising his house from all the others that look the same. This is the new landscape of modern village life in China, and those caught up in the change are still finding their way.
