On November 17, 2018 the “Rediscovering the Longheu Girls’ School” concluded with three programs that offered over 60 people the opportunity to think about the connections between history, environmental protection, and art.
Tag Archives: community art
shenzhen wetlands
You may not be aware that there is a wetlands conservation area in downtown Shenzhen. Tucked away between Window of the World, Baishizhou, and the Binhai Expressway, the wetlands boasts the last bit of original coastline of Shenzhen Bay. Indeed, once upon a time, it was a guarded border. The city uses this small piece of land as a living classroom, inviting limited numbers of people in to learn about conservation and local ecology.
shekou car free festival
So it’s that time of year when Shekou celebrates its still walkable neighborhoods with a car free Saturday. In addition to promoting environmental awareness, the festival includes games and food and a parade. This year, Handshake 302 worked with Shekou Primary School #1’s after school art club to design and make large puppets to carry from Seaworld to the Sanyo / E-cool area and back again. Below are pictures from the three-days of happiness that was making giant puppets with 8 and 9 year olds.
education through time (sz book of changes, ep 6)
be in but not of: hard practice
Hope takes work in the moment and grows through deep time. It is not over until all of us (including the screamers) are free from suffering; just as there is not one America, there is not one Hell, and certainly there is not just one apocalypse. If we look attentively we see how many lives in how many places are destroyed time and time again. The question facing each of us is: where can I work? What relationships, what changes allow me to help end suffering? And then we work, trusting that other bodhisattvas are also doing their hard practice in fields where we cannot, because (and this I believe) just as there is not one world, there is not one Paradise, and certainly there is not only one savior. Continue reading
nanting village, guangzhou
On Friday September 9, 2016, I had the privilege of visiting Nanting Village, Guangzhou with Professor Chen Xiaoyang, from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. The occasion for the visit was a screening of Zhong Shifang’s film, “From Border to Border,” a documentary on the Chinese community in Tangra Calcutta. I will discuss the film in my next post. Today, I would like to contextualize the screening of the film with a brief introduction to Nanting Village. Continue reading
taipei dreaming (on such a snowy day)!
This past week, I had the pleasure of visiting the Taipei Dream Community, a fascinating place where Gordon Tsai has used real estate to push forward hippie dreams–redeveloping Xizhi (汐止), stimulating community through carnivals, and artist residencies.
local is as local does. or not.
This week I have been thinking about iterations of the “local” in two sites: the 2015 Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture and the Baishizhou Street Museum. In particular, I’m thinking about the possibility of making connections from “here” to “there” when they hinge on the distance between (a) some outside understanding of what the local might be and (b) what might be interesting to actual locals. The possibility of meaningful dialogue is further complicated when “outsiders” and “locals” are organized by global hierarchies, internal class structures, and unquestioned ideas of what might be intellectually and/or aesthetically engaging. Continue reading
寻找深圳真相／searching for the real shenzhen
Recently, “Handshake with the Future” curator, Liu He talked with Shenzhen Middle School Teacher Zhong about the current exhibition at Handshake 302. Here’s what she said：
Q: 让学生们参与《与未来握手》的初衷是什么？／ What did you hope to see happen when by having your students participate in “Handshake with the Future”?
A: 我认为城中村是城市发展中一个很特别的存在，希望学生能通过302项目，有一个走入城中村契机，对自己生活的城市有更进一步的了解和加深认识。／ I think that urban villages are a special aspect of urban development. I hoped that by way of this 302 project, students would have an opportunity to go into an urban village, becoming more aware of the city they live in and developing a deeper understanding about it. Continue reading
寻找前途／the road not taken
Recently, “Handshake with the Future” curator, Liu He talked with Xin’an Polytechnic professor He about the current exhibition at Handshake 302. Here’s what she said：
Q: 让学生们参与《与未来握手》的初衷是什么？／What did you hope to see happen when by having your students participate in “Handshake with the Future”? Continue reading
Shenzhen Noted 