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Those of you who are familiar with our shop know that we carry lovely pearl and jade necklaces from China. We were originally connected with the artist through our good friend, Pamela Larson (top photo), who is currently living in China with her husband and two daughters. Pamela recently sent us the email below. It was such a lovely story from across the globe we thought we'd share it with you too!
Hello lovely ladies of Small Planet Trading,
I was so fortunate to have the most amazing experience. I work in an art group which meets in the private gallery of a famous Chinese sculptor, Xu Hongfei (wearing glasses in photo above). He invited us to join him for the weekend for an art installation in a 1000 year old village of the Chinese minority group, the Yao People (related to the mountain peoples of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand)!!!! We went in a convoy 5 hours north to this village in the mountains. Four large trucks carried his over life-size sculptures! It was such a sight to see!
The village is very poor and the people live basically as they have for hundreds of years, except for the cell phones! They dress day to day in traditional clothes and for the celebration, wear their special ceremonial clothes! When we arrived, the men came to help carry the sculptures and place them around the village. It was amazing to see these sculptures in their mountainous landscape with the ancient village!!!
My fellow art-friend from Germany and I were among the three foreigners there. The rest of the bus load of Xu Hongfei's friends and associates were Chinese, with many artsy-fartsy types, a camera crew making a documentary, and the local Gouangzhou News TV crew! Many Chinese treat the minority people in a strange way, almost like zoo creatures. They went up to them, indicated they wanted a photo, and then left. No thank you, no connection. Me, (being my shy self!), went up to the villagers with tons of questions in my bad Chinese, about their clothes, art, children. It was great! They were so warm and interested. Most of them had never seen a Westerner except on TV!!!!! I was so inquisitive and friendly that I made many friends who then poured gifts on me! These people live in poverty yet were so generous!!! One woman, after discussing her gorgeous outfit, took it off and gave it to me!!! She would not take anything in return! She wanted to show that the Yao People are generous peaceful people! Then a man I chatted with gave my the sacred swan feather out of his headdress! I was floored! I found the leader of the village and said I want to give something to his village. I suggested money for the school. He said that would be great since many of the desks are broken and they do not have enough paper, pencils, etc. My German friend wanted to give to, so the next day the village leader introduced us to the headmaster of the school and we gave him roughly $60 US which to them is a fortune. The TV crew got wind of this and came over and filmed us, a translator translated and it was quite a big deal!
The next afternoon, all the villagers dressed in their special outfits and the govt. officials came, dances were performed, speeches were given. It was a sight to behold! It was amazing and I wanted to share this with you. Here are a few photos to illustrate their outfits and the art of Xu Hongfei in the village.
This experience humbled me, as well as excited me and expanded my knowledge of the world.
with love
pamela
