Author: MINGYAN Zhu

【Research】Questionnaire opening

“ Young people’s loneliness, depression, and desire to find sustenance are the same as those of middle-aged and elderly people who want to worship Buddha and chant sutras. Those unavoidable anxiety in life require different forms of comfort. Perhaps chaos can overcome reality to a certain extent, but chaos is only a window of occasional escape.

The epidemic has hit the world hard, the economy is down, and news of layoffs and salary cuts have been spread from time to time. In order to find certainty from many uncertainties, metaphysics is receiving attention.

Is this mysterious power based on cultural identity universally applicable to the 21st century? Is the placebo effect of the irrational and subjective mysterious force still continuing or trending to become more popular? ”

The part in bold is the purpose of my survey, and I want to get the answer through the questionnaire.

【 Intervention 2 】 6.7

old question: how to strengthen self cultural identity through innovating the ancient rituals for the contemporary (/economically active) generations of Chinese or even worldwide citizen.

new question: In the digital age, how to strengthen cultural identity by integrating history and healing practices combined with traditional esoteric elements in modern Chinese society?

reversed version: In the digital age, how to strengthen cultural identity through the introduction of a placebo that challenges combining with traditional esoteric elements?

Key words: cultural identity, placebo, esoteric elements

Aim:

  1. Challenge symbol with different symbol
  2. Measure a context through placebo 

[ ideation 1] Animal Totem Worship in Fujian Culture

xThe totem of the Hezhe nationality is the same: ox
The totem of the Hezhe nationality is the same: fish
Totem worship: the behavior of the ancient ancestors is not ignorant, but extremely real

【Intervention 1】

I try to digitalise the animal totem to see if it can be a logo or can be changed to an animation.

【Research】Snake Inspirations

Friendly door snake — David Shrigley
David Shrigle — Serpant (2020), Ceramic sculpture
Moon on East Lake — Qiai Shen

I selected two projects about snakes, one is work named Serpant from British artist David shrigle and the other is an exhibition from a Chinese artist Qiai Shen. In my opinion, these two works have a certain degree of popularity and can extend the age range of the audience.

Now I want to generate the characteristics of these two artworks: the grotesque and humorous relaxed feeling combined with the solemn atmosphere in the traditional culture, and create a healing product that can have a placebo effect.

【Research】Esoteric element one —— Totem

Chinese-dragon
Russia-bear
Indonesia—Garuda
South Korea/North Korea—Hibiscus
Mongolia—Wolf and White Deer
Singapore—Lion
Malaysia—Malay Tiger
Thailand—Dapeng
Laos—Asian Elephant
Myanmar—Holy Lion
Sri Lanka—Lion
Bangladesh—water lily
India—Lion Rock Carving
Nepal—Scalper
Uzbekistan—Phoenix
Kazakhstan — Pegasus
Kyrgyzstan—Eagle
Turkmenistan—Alhatier Golden Horse
Syria, Egypt, Libya-Saladin Condor
Sudan—Desert Heron Eagle
Oman-Arab Knife
Lebanon—Cedar
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain — Date Palm
UAE, Kuwait—Falcon
Yemen—Eagle
Rome—Wolf

【Fujian culture】

The Fujianese custom of tattooing with snake totem

In the three dynasties of the ancient times, there were at least seven independent indigenous tribes living in Fujian, which were called “Seven Mins” in ancient literature. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Chu destroyed the Yue Kingdom, and some Yue people escaped into Fujian. The Fujian natives of this period were called “Min Yue” in history. They liked to live by the water, were accustomed to water buckets, and were good at using boats. The most important custom was Snakes are totems, broken hair tattoos, and primitive sorcery is popular. When interpreting the word “Min” in “Shuowen Jiezi”, it said: “Min, Southeast Vietnam, snake species.” The so-called “snake species” means that the Minyue people took snakes as their ancestors, reflecting their totem worship of snakes. For a long time, this kind of worship has always existed among the descendants of the Minyue ethnic group. For example, Minhou Danmin still “professed snake species” until the end of Qing Dynasty, and did not shy away from it. They painted the image of snakes in the palaces and temples, and offered sacrifices regularly. Put a snake on the ship, named “Wooden Dragon”, and pray for the snake to protect the boat safely. If you see the snake leaving the ship, you think it is an ominous omen. In the Qing dynasty, the women of Danmin in Fuzhou had a serpentine silver hairpin with their heads high in their hair, which also meant not to forget the ancestor.

I plan to use the worship of snakes in Fujian’s animal totems as a starting point to explore a new form of placebo for young people and elders.

【Literature analyse】Narratives for a New belonging

It is crucial that the migrant should be able to find space to construct an identity that can accommodate what he or she once was and is now supposed to be: an identity that is somewhere in-between. This is true also for those who now find themselves actively marginalised/minoritised in societies where they have long been settled.

Are we prepared to acknowledge that the in-betweenness of migrant identities, in the literal and metaphorical sense, both calls up, and calls into question, existing referential notions of cultural authenticity and traditional, stable identity?

Fanon whose writings made the post-colonial perspective possible: ‘In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself … And it is by going beyond the historical, instrumental hypothesis that I will initiate my cycle of freedom’ (1986: 229–31).

Narratives for a New Belonging — Roger Bromley

My understanding:

For immigrants, when you come into contact with a new culture, you can easily feel lost in the first place, and you will also be caught in a cultural gap. You should try to combine two different cultures and use your own understanding to create new cultural products. This can be private, but when private interest becomes a trend, it becomes a new creation.

The most direct expression of personal interests, tastes, and habits is through people’s daily rituals or the sense of ritual in important cultural activities.

【Analyse】Self observation of diasporic culture

I started living in London in 2017 till now, I realize there is a large amount of Chinese who come overseas to study or make a living every year. What role this experience plays in our lives is the question I always want to explore.

London is a wonderful city, it embraces all kinds of cultures, and cultural diversity is fully reflected here. I have observed an interesting phenomenon: the more people participate in cultural communication, the more in-depth and detailed their observations of their traditional culture are. Under such circumstances, people can have more inspiration and intervention about their nations and selves, which can be some comfort for lonely people living foreign land.