Not What We Thought We'd See in Huangbaiyu
Before you read this post, if you have time, read this article which is the kind of thing that set us on our way to the village of Huangbaiyu.
As Laurel and I were leaving Los Alamos in July, Mark, a colleague there, recommended Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, a book on truly sustainable design. The first author is part of a US-China collaboration to design new cities and this rural village in China. Tavi and I read the book and were happy to be heading off the Lonely Planet path to check out the village. Except that right before we went we read this article, which put a damper on things. But as I had already bought my plane ticket back to Shanghai (for my return flight to Sydney) from Shenyang, the nearest big city, we were somewhat committed and also still interested to check it all out.
What we found sustainable design-wise is pretty much as described in that second article. What we found people-wise was great though. As we pulled up, the foreigner-alert went out to Shannon, the American anthropology PhD student living there to evaluate the project. Though media types parade through there every now and then, she was perplexed at our random appearance, and she didn't have time to talk with us because it was the first day of her three day wedding! She and Jay, her (American) fiancee, have been living there for over a year and decided to have a wedding just as anyone in the village does. Only it was bigger, because they invited all 1400 people who live there. What's two more? We couldn't pass up the opportunity to hang around for the weekend and see it. For weeks people had been asking if any friends or family were coming from the US for the wedding and were told no, it was too far. Then, as Jay said, we made liars out of them - who else could we be than their dear friends? Read Tavi's blog for more of the story (new link over there on the right). I'll just add pictures of (not all of) the food our table of 10 people was served (on Saturday, not the main event even - 6 cold dishes, 6 hot, and 6 soups. A delicious feast) and Tavi's much-enjoyed contribution to the festivities.
After spending time there it was almost a surprise to see the cute (uninhabited) yellow houses as we were driving out. They are completely irrelevant to the life of this village. Fingers crossed that the government does not force families to move to save face...
As Laurel and I were leaving Los Alamos in July, Mark, a colleague there, recommended Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, a book on truly sustainable design. The first author is part of a US-China collaboration to design new cities and this rural village in China. Tavi and I read the book and were happy to be heading off the Lonely Planet path to check out the village. Except that right before we went we read this article, which put a damper on things. But as I had already bought my plane ticket back to Shanghai (for my return flight to Sydney) from Shenyang, the nearest big city, we were somewhat committed and also still interested to check it all out.
What we found sustainable design-wise is pretty much as described in that second article. What we found people-wise was great though. As we pulled up, the foreigner-alert went out to Shannon, the American anthropology PhD student living there to evaluate the project. Though media types parade through there every now and then, she was perplexed at our random appearance, and she didn't have time to talk with us because it was the first day of her three day wedding! She and Jay, her (American) fiancee, have been living there for over a year and decided to have a wedding just as anyone in the village does. Only it was bigger, because they invited all 1400 people who live there. What's two more? We couldn't pass up the opportunity to hang around for the weekend and see it. For weeks people had been asking if any friends or family were coming from the US for the wedding and were told no, it was too far. Then, as Jay said, we made liars out of them - who else could we be than their dear friends? Read Tavi's blog for more of the story (new link over there on the right). I'll just add pictures of (not all of) the food our table of 10 people was served (on Saturday, not the main event even - 6 cold dishes, 6 hot, and 6 soups. A delicious feast) and Tavi's much-enjoyed contribution to the festivities.
After spending time there it was almost a surprise to see the cute (uninhabited) yellow houses as we were driving out. They are completely irrelevant to the life of this village. Fingers crossed that the government does not force families to move to save face...
posted by Lori Bassman at 4:48 PM
1 Comments:
Great photos! Thanks! stephen in berkeley
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