Hutong Page Turner: Loreli Co-Founders Dedicate New Zine to Bricked Up Alleys, Submissions Accepted Until June 15
Kerryn Leitch and Amy Daml aren't ready to figuratively turn the page on the hutongs just yet, though they are working to help Beijingers literally do so.
READ: A Drink With: Amy Daml Founding Member and Contributor to China Art Aggregator Website Loreli
Aside from being hutong devotees, the pair are some of the brightest minds, founding members, and regular contributors of the creative platform Loreli and art aggregator site. They wanted to apply their artsy expertise to capturing the essence of Beijing's once whimsical alleys, which have suffered rampant demolitions and waves of recent closures. In order to do so, Leitch (pictured in the lead photo above on the right with her friend and fellow Loreli editor Angela Li) and Daml (pictured below) chose an equally fringe, all but bygone self publishing medium – zines.
"Zines are also this low-fi, it 'doesn't have to be perfect or high budget but it works' way of doing media," Daml says, adding that motif suits the hutongs quite well because "they are the lifeblood of Beijing for foreigners and locals alike. It's where homegrown creativity and innovation start. You can see it in all of the amazing ways that people have been able to carve out livelihoods, homes, and businesses in the hutongs – things that are impossible to do in Sanlitun or more built up areas."
But Daml and Leitch can't make their Hutong Farewell Zine alone. They recently began asking their WeChat friends and followers to submit photos and essays about the increasingly bricked up neighborhoods. Below, they tell us more about the self publishing project.
What first inspired you to start working on this zine?
Kerryn Leitch: It was actually before the current carnage. I was meeting with Rain from Cellar Door, trying to work out the logistics of doing an event together, when we thought doing a hutong zine as the (construction) signs had recently gone up in Fangjia and we didn't have any idea how it would play out. We wanted to do something to save everything we loved about it. Memorialize it. Have some power over it. The Cellar Door event never materialized because the construction started happening, fast but we continued with the zine.
Amy Daml: The hutongs have been subject to renovations since long before we arrived and will continue to morph and change long after we are gone. We wanted to remember our slice of hutong life – 'our' being all the people living in Beijing now, not just we at Loreli, because the people in the scene are changing just as fast as the place.
How much progress have you made so far in terms of contributions and completion?
Amy Daml: We've had a few contributions so far, but we have set the deadline very far from now so people have time to gather their thoughts and creations.
Kerryn Leitch: We are still very much in the early stages. We have already approached a few artists regarding contributions and are working with the Spittoon collective for writing contributions. They are holding a writing workshop with a hutong theme, so that will develop some more work from fresh voices.
Tell us more about why a zine is a fitting tribute to the hutongs.
Kerryn Leitch: I've been a fan of zines since my teens in the 1990s. At the time, they were the best way to learn about the indie – in the old true sense of the term when it was a status not a genre – bands you couldn't find in Spin or Rolling Stone. It's exciting to see the art form rising again in Beijing and the scene forming around emerging young Chinese artists. It seems like a perfect way to pay tribute to the hutongs that always did have the feeling of being a place for those in the know, or rather locals both Chinese and foreign who built and blended into the neighborhood communities.
Tell us more about zines you have enjoyed in the past. How were they were effective?
Kerryn Leitch: Possibly the first zine I found in Beijing was Really Want 吃的. It's created by Li Shanshan and Da Gua and they use food to tell the story of their lives, families and China how they see it. I was completely entranced by everything about it – the content, the design, the creators.
Since then I've enjoyed zines by many other young Chinese creators including Zhan Qi, Shuo, Jony, Sponge Gourd Collective, and Jinna and Shui (Hole in the Wall zine) and they all showed in photographs, text, and illustration a version of Chinese life I wasn't seeing anywhere else. This is the vision we want to share of Fangjia. Something simple, honest, and spare. Not a hagiography of a scene that will become legendary, but a snapshot or history of every great and shitty thing it was.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Amy Daml: I hope people will contribute what they can to the zine in terms of memories of this era of hutongs. I know that 10, 20, 30 years from now it will be worth more than gold to all of us who are here right now experiencing Beijing at this time. Ugh, sorry if I got too mushy!
Kerryn Leitch: This is far more emotional than I realized it could be. I hadn't realized how much this community has meant to my Beijing experience. It has fueled my alcoholism, for sure, but it has meant that, if I just want to get out of my house, I know I will find some friends at Fang, Cellar, El Nido, Wujin, especially Más, and so many others. I'm curious as to what will happen after, but I'm well aware that what I've lost will leave a hole in my lifestyle that can't be filled.
Leitch and Daml will be accepting submissions for their zine until June 15. Email them at rss@loreli-china.com to submit. For more information, click here.
Photos courtesy of Leitch and Daml
