The Land of Melting Shadows

There once was a land, no further away than your imagination. A Land where the Trees’ whispers can be heard on the wind. And the squirrels chitter and chatter as they scamper to and fro amongst the branches - playing their endless game of tag.

A Land where the Brooks babble endlessly amid fern covered banks. Fish and Tadpoles play a game of Leapfrog in the clear, cool water and Turtles sunbathe nearby.

A Land where the tall Grasses sway in the breeze as if dancing to a distant tune. Wild flowers wave their petals at the busy Bees who fly by; Beckoning to them. Enticing them.

A Land where the Deer graze peacefully in the lush, green valleys. A Land where the Birds and the Faeries gather in the bushes of an evening to share the day's gossip. And the Frog serenade, with Cricket accompaniment, continues well into the night.

A Land where the morning sun melts the night into the shadows of the day. And at sunset the shadows melt into night. But there are times when the shadows melt into things best left to one’s imagination.

A Land of Melting Shadows.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Weird Wednesday ~ Cobweb Clothing

Zheng Xianwen, a known television broadcaster and TV journalist, has made a shawl out of real spider webs. Xianwen used 300 spider webs to complete his shawl which honors ancient cultural traditions of the Kucong Tribe in China.

As a senior reporter of the Simao Television, a local TV broadcaster in southwestern part of Yunnan, Zheng Xianwen has also developed a longstanding interest in the life and culture of Kucong tribe, an ethnic minority neighboring his region in the province. According to Zheng, Kucong people were so poor in the past and their clothes were mostly made of cobwebs and banana trees leaves. However, such techniques are on the brink of extinction nowadays as making cobweb clothes is barely seen around anymore. Even younger Kucong people don’t even know about the existence of the once popular special clothes among their ancestor.

Zheng once worked in the region in the 1960′s and bore a strong sense of keeping the rare techniques of cobweb clothing making handed down. According to the amateur collector, his only collection of spiderweb clothing made of 300 cobwebs took him two days to finish during his designed trip to the Kucong tribe last November. In addition to the cobweb clothes, Zheng has also collected many living tools once used by the ethnic tribe. Zheng has not let anyone in on the ancient clothing-making secrets.