In light of his recent solo show at the Center for Chinese Contemporary Art<\/a><\/strong>, I chatted with Chen Hangfeng (please also see disclosure note at the bottom).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Daniel Szehin Ho:<\/strong> How did you come up with the idea of dealing with Christmas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chen Hangfeng:<\/strong> It started with the Christmas I spent in Canada, in 2005. Unlike what I experienced here in China\u2014going out drinking, parties, and so on\u2014it was so quiet in the countryside. This made me think about Christmas in a different way; it made me wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So first I made a Christmas tree in 2006 with the Logomania<\/em>series. Then I had a friend who told me the story with his grandparents who came from a village, near Rui\u2019an in Zhejiang province [south of Shanghai], that makes a lot of Christmas ornaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He told me stories about the contrast between the quietness of the village and how everywhere there is this glittery stuff\u2014green and red everywhere. He couldn\u2019t really swim in the creek water, whereas before it had been home to lots of fish and shrimp. That\u2019s how China is\u2014the contrast between nature and what\u2019s going on. They make so many different types of ornaments\u2014with certain materials, like paper, plastic, Styrofoam, and glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t discover much in 2007 from my first two-day trip, when I focused on the shooting for \u201cSanta\u2019s Little Helpers\u201d. But in my mind I wanted to go back. Then I did some more research about this village, which had such a long history\u2014over 1000 years. They had a long tradition of scholarship, of participating in the Civil Service examinations, with the highest level reaching the Ministry of Rites in imperial times (\u793c\u90e8\u5c1a\u4e66)\u2014which is kind of like the Cultural Bureau now (laughs<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> Then you went back again in 2012? What changed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> Yeah. Not so much changed\u2014though the scale of production went down, since the economic downturn affected this village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also heard about this tragedy in a four- to five-storey building where the first two or three floors housed the family workshop, and the top floors were where the family lived. There was all this styro-foam and glue, and no one really knows what happened\u2014but anyhow it caught fire, and only the two kids survived because they happened to be out somewhere in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2012, I was trying to document more of their lives. Looking at the family genealogy, as well as the ancestral temple. This was a big change: back then it was derelict, but they renovated it. It\u2019s actually now an activity center with mahjong, cards, Wenzhou-style lyrics (guci<\/em>)\u2014they played taped versions of it and very popular with the old people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> So you were looking into the village\u2019s history?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> I went through the family genealogy (zupu<\/em>)\u2014it\u2019s a really a thick one, in big boxes; quite solemn and serious. I discovered a lot of scholars within the genealogy with pictures and stories\u2014even one jinshi<\/em> degree holder from the Kangxi period in the Qing dynasty [1661\u20131722].<\/p>\n\n\n\n So there is this poem I found by Sun Xidan (\u5b59\u7cfb\u65e6) about the village. So I wanted as much as possible to have a traditional form to my practice. I was going over the poems\u2026and then I looked at this village. I decided to use glue to write these poems, and sprinkle glitter on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> I noticed that no one talks. Were you trying to avoid a documentary format?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> I wanted to stay an outsider. Of course, I did talk to them a lot! But when I filmed them, I didn\u2019t talk\u2014maybe it\u2019s because I still want to have a certain distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, I was just focused on filming. I didn\u2019t even bring a tripod, and especially didn\u2019t want to disturb them too much. Plus there was also another issue: they couldn\u2019t speak Mandarin, the older people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This documentary aspect is a bit tricky. I thought a lot about this later. I chose to have four screens\u2014I think it\u2019s more interesting with multiple channels allowing for more of a feeling of micro-narratives\u2014of the process of how they make these ornaments, the contrast, the glitter, and then the scenes of nature covered in garbage. Green leaves amid all these \u201cglittering\u201d objects; fish with glitter in the water, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> Why do they just throw the garbage away like that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> Maybe they just don\u2019t have a high level of consciousness in regards to environmental issues. They try to control it, but these are family workshops\u2014and they are careless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I found particularly interesting was the mentality: I found they were quite efficient\u2014making ornaments in the same way they make food: bamboo sticks, with the baubles stuck on to them, painting them, and then just sticking them somewhere to dry\u2014kind of like bingtan hulu<\/em> [Chinese candied fruit]. And then there\u2019s the adaption of farming tools. I still think: this is the wisdom of farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> What about the conditions in the workshop?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> They work fast, but not fast like Chaplin fast. They\u2019re quite relaxed\u2014talking and so on. Everyday they have a quota to finish, as a part of the family business. But all the locals are the bosses, and they hire workers to work on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, all this started with the production of painted bamboo blinds, and there was a Taiwanese who saw the demand for this product. Then the money came in. And then they adjusted to this. In the end, Christmas invaded their village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The actual young people from this village were doing quite well. In a way, this village is quite rich. DSH:<\/strong> How much do you as an artist think you should look at social issues?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> I have always had an interest in the social\u2014and some artists can be totally uninterested, which is fine. When we live in this environment, we are affected, and we are aware. Still, I think an art piece has to stand on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> With this piece, won\u2019t audiences in the West just see exploitation under globalization?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> Well, I hope people can go and watch the whole video<\/strong><\/a>. There\u2019s much more than that\u2026. The life there is quite peaceful. Yes, the landscape has changed\u2014but you see how people adapt to it. I want people to think a bit more: after all, these are how those ornaments are made\u2014and why do we need those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> In fact, you went all the way to Finland last year, to Rovaniemi\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n CFH:<\/strong> Yeah, I have this interview with the \u201cSanta Claus\u201d<\/strong><\/a> there. They have this Santa Claus village there, made for tourists\u2014they even \u201cmoved\u201d the Arctic Circle closer\u2014this I found out later. They have this line which says \u201cYou are standing on the arctic circle,\u201d but it\u2019s not actually true\u2014it\u2019s make believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The whole set up is like Hollywood. Elves will ask you to wait, and \u201cSanta\u201d will try to guess where you are from. He has a room, desk, map of the world, DJ working the DJ table, taking videos and photos. You\u2019re not allowed to take any pictures but everything was recorded on video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I noted there\u2019s this video I can buy, so the next day, I prepared a list of questions. Actually, they got very impatient\u2014the elves asked me to go, but I kept asking him questions. What I asked were basically really dumb questions about Christmas and the Christmas industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many Nordic villages claimed to be the home town of Santa Claus. This particular village is basically a shopping mall\u2014with crap, probably all from China. It\u2019s a theme park, not a village\u2014and I chose a certain angle to make the footage surreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> So you\u2019ve looked at the production and consumption of Christmas\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> Yeah, this export of Christmas is strange\u2014it becomes just a product. The concept\u2014well, here in China, Christmas has become overwhelming. Almost nobody here has any religious reasons [to celebrate it] and the power of consumption has taken hold to sell as much as they can. Quite hilarious, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also think about the loss of identity: Why do we want to have this holiday? Chinese culture has so many festivals already. But again: they\u2019re all being promoted as festivals of consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH:<\/strong> So where else will you take this series?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHF:<\/strong> I\u2019m planning to go back to that village. I heard they are celebrating Christmas\u2014they have so much leftover Christmas ornaments that the authorities said why don\u2019t we just celebrate this [in order to use it up]? Meanwhile, international demand is going down\u2014while domestic demand is rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In China, Christmas is just this consumption-fest. Couples go out, or get drunk or laid. It\u2019s impossible to catch a cab, and then there\u2019s that silly count-down on Christmas Eve. It\u2019s like Christmas is turning into a whole different festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, this Christmas topic isn\u2019t just about Christmas. It\u2019s about alienation, as well as about how something can jump from one culture to another, kind of like an \u201cinvasive species.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cScattered Sceneries Alongside Mei Creek\u201d (8 mins clip)<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Vimeo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Note: Chen Hangfeng is a frequent collaborator of OV Gallery. In accordance with Ran Dian\u2019s ethics policy we must state that Rebecca Catching, a managing editor, was also the Director of OV Gallery at the time of publication.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Daniel Szehin Ho \u4f55\u601d\u884dtranslated by Lu … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/02\/en\/image-140.png\")
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There are young people working there, too, but they weren\u2019t from the village; they were from much poorer places in Hunan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/randian-art.s3.ap-east-1.amazonaws.com\/2023\/02\/zh-hans\/image-144.png\")
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