Tokyo
Asakusa
Category: Design
“My Ruler is in my Head”
Shibazhan
The moment GeShuxian energetically greets you, you know you have just met someone unique and creative. Running around, she brings out intricately decorated and carefully constructed boxes, hats, bags, clothes, and pictures that spill out from every corner of her temporary home.
During a tea break, while chatting and smoking, she peels into layers a piece of birchbark lying on the floor and starts cutting away to reveal a whole arrange of beautiful patterns. Nothing is pre-drawn, she doesn’t use the computer, no cutting patterns or tape measures. Everything is by eye. In this age of technology, you forget that life and design can flourish without Apple macs. Perhaps it is time for us all to discover our inner ruler!
Heading Up North
Research trip into Oronchen birchbark and culture.
Not For Sale
Bejing, 798
Something felt amiss as I watched an elderly man being shooed from a quiet corner in Beijing’s 798 Art District. Visitors averted their eyes as 2 police supervised him packing away his paintings. So I guess, only those who can afford not to sell their work are allowed to sell their work.
Feeding the Masses
Xinxing
Preparation for my cousin’s wedding lunch banquet in his old village home. 40 tables, 8-10 guests per table. Dinner and lunch the day before consisted of the organs and less tasty food. Dinner after consisted of the extra uncooked food. Plastic bags provided with every meal for take away. Nothing is wasted.
Scriptures
Labrang Monastery
Enroute the kora.
Old scriptures.
Dedicated Energy
Labrang Monastery
3km kora, 1174 prayer wheels. If each of these were linked up to a generator, would that be enough electricity to power the city?
3km kora, repeated prostration. If every movement was collected in their hand and knee pads, would that be enough energy to power their homes?
Young to Old
Tongde
Karma is the great-great-great-grandma of toddler granddaughter of Zigdo.
Mrs. Zigdo (left) looks after 5 generations under her roof. Non-stop from the early hours till late at night, it becomes obvious how important it was for AmdoCraft to understand their lifestyle and provide a work structure that she is able to do amongst all her household chores. Perhaps here is a lesson that Hong Kong work places can learn from, where the creation of more flexible work systems for mothers (or fathers) mean that their children can be brought up by their families rather than their maids.
Weaving to the Future
Tongde
Last year I met Klaas who runs AmdoCraft (See post “Craft for Change”). This year I returned to stay with one of the Tibetan families he works with. After Zigdo proudly shows us some of the Amdo products his family makes, explaining the difference between good and bad quality felt, we watched the ladies spin wool thread and weave. Already owning and using several of their bags that have been woven in this way, I suddenly discovered a new appreciation for them. Their traditional weaving method is time laborious but fascinatingly simple in its set-up with the correct knowledge. You cannot help but get a warm homely feeling as found metal rods, wooden sticks and plastic pipes are configured together to create beautifully woven lengths of fabric.
Time Travel
Kvosgol
In each and every ger, touches of the modern world are seeping through the rafters. One evening I would be watching a loud incomprehensible Russian card game lit by a single lightbulb. The next day lunchtime, I would be thanking a chain smoking old lady for tea, eyeing curiously the electronic boxes that powered her small flat screen monitor. Later that evening, I would be sitting warming my feet in the ger of a family of 3 in complete darkness, following the glowing blue screen of a mobile phone as the mother pushes in-between the wooden roof structure and the fabric top.
This gradual infiltration of modern conveniences in the countryside, as opposed to the bulldozing over with technology in many developing countries such as China, gives Mongolia a poetic charm. Whether this current lifestyle is as poetic to live as a daily reality is questionable. However, in the long run, perhaps this gradual change will allow for a more culturally rich modern society to emerge. Only time will tell.