Category Archives: Design

Design, Fashion, Green, Mongolia

Tailor-Designed

Ulaanbaatar


When is a dress more than just a dress?
When it takes a day browsing Moron’s black market to select 2 beautiful and complementary fabrics. When you travel with this fabric to the next city in search of a tailor to transform it into a traditional del with a modern twist. When you spend an evening at the tailors flicking through photographs, mixing and matching elements, discussing without a common spoken language in what direction you would like the design to go. When you return a week later for 2 afternoons of fittings, finishing, and last minute adjustments.

As modern wardrobes overflow with ready-made clothing, has it become too easy to own clothes? Cheap easily accesible clothing is what drives the underpaid child labour industry. Maybe we need to start investing more effort and thought into clothing purchases. It may be time for more dresses to be more than just a dress.

China, Design, Interior, Lighting

Faked Fake

Macau


One incoherent overhyped show later, and we are shuffling once again through hordes of tourists back in what is supposedly a 5-star hotel. I guess these new mega-hotels provide everything that the new affluent Chinese tourist wants from a holiday. Free coaches to shuttle them around to shops to consume big brand names until they drop, and some kind of backdrop to pose for photos in front of. Is this China’s answer to Vegas or Disneyland? It seems to neither deliver the kitsch over-the-top fake promise of “living the dream” that Vegas does, nor does it create a complete Disney-like dream world of characters that sets a child’s imagination alive.  I cannot help but be reminded instead of packed shopping malls in Hong Kong at the weekend. It appears that the new Macau is full of promises, but not quite right.

 

Architecture, China, Design, Interior

Recycled Building

Shixing


Venturing through the side entrance of a run down traditional family ancestral hall building (祠堂), I realise that the crude drawings on the outside are not graffiti, but rather a hint to what can be discovered inside: a basic children’s classroom and playground. Amongst the crumbling walls and pillars, are metal climbing frames and plastic toy planes. On one side of my mind, I question how the community could allow such historical architectural elements fall into such disrepair, and wonder if it is taking away the building’s integrity by removing it’s original purpose. However, as I watch my uncle being followed by shy curious children, I realise that perhaps we are sometimes too quick to judge. Clearly there is not the money to restore the building, and in many ways the school is doing an equally important job in serving the community and keeping the building alive.


Of course it would be ideal if the building could be restored with the school integrated, but where would the money or time come from?

 

China, Design

Keys to the Past

Sun Hing


Opening the door to the old family village home, aunty unlocks history and brings it alive. Stories and memories are recalled as we move from room to room, object to object. Your grandma lived here, your great-grandfather made these to catch massive fish…

I had returned to the ancestral home of my mum’s parents, and it was over these 3 days that 3 worlds gathered to dine and laugh together. We had arrived from Hong Kong, a world of stability, in search of stories that linked us to the past. We were looked after by our relatives in Sun Hing, who living in a world sprinting into development, were creating the future. And we found distant relations, who were living in a world that was clearly the result of a complex political not so distant past.

 

China, Design

Full Circle

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As I sit on a mini-bus stuffed 3 times over capacity from Wulingshan to Sanya, I reflect on memorable transportation encounters of the trip. Back in London I would have been somewhat grumpy at the prospect of 3 hours with a rucksack on my lap and 2 medium-framed ladies standing in what technically is the legroom that comes with the ticket of my seat. However being in China, I was instead thankful that not only did I have a seat but also a window to look out of. I had endured worse, much worse, plus these people needed to get home. While for me these episodes were one way trips, for everyone else it was a weekly, if not daily reality.

I have come to understand from my short time in China that for all the negative publicity in the news and the speculative hype regarding its economic development, for most people living outside the sphere of direct political influence, life is just about “getting on with it”. For those lucky enough to be reasonably well-off and well-connected it is an exciting endless sea of opportunities. For everyone else, while decisions made by the central Beijing government (whether right or wrong) may have a direct influence on their lives, all they can they do is adapt  to make the best of their situation. Changes are happening unimaginably rapidly, and the changes are happening to an unimaginably number of people.

It is because of these changes and people that I leave China with mixed emotions. I am torn between the negative destruction of the old and the positiveness of the new. For those living inside, changes can be either sources of opportunity or sources of struggle and disruption. Being amidst such chaos of people and noise has been at times overwhelmingly claustrophobic, but it has also given me the chance to see and experience many moments of surprising community humanness amongst strangers.

China, Design, Fashion

Edge of Extinction

Daoshun Village


“It is for the museum”.

The process of bark cloth making is physically demanding, and the most suitable tree is not only a protected species but also poisonous. It is therefore not surprising that bark cloth items are now made just for museums or tourist shows. Chengquan learnt the the craft from his father, who had in turn discovered the skill out of necessity in the army. “They had nothing to wear otherwise, it is warm and waterproof”. Today, with modern fabrics, there is no need for bark cloth, and he adds “It doesn’t look great, who would wear it?”

Bark cloth making, along with many traditional crafts, are what the government title as “intangible cultural heritage” and require preserving. Currently their preservation method seems to only involve retaining where possible the knowledge that still exists. The problem is that often this knowledge is a skill that is held in the hands of single craftspeople and needs to be passed down apprentice-style to the next generation. Without progression of the craft to produce items relevant to modern society, it holds no attraction to the younger generation. Without progression of the craft to attract a younger following, there are no apprentices to inherit this knowledge. Although museums are able to keep the crafts surviving for the time being by creating a temporary demand, in reality they are only really preparing for their extinction.