Harmony with the Land: Explorations in Graphic Narratives

Harmony with the land is a series of explorations of graphic narratives based on my lived experience and received knowledge relating to my homeland of Yunnan. The narrations are rooted deeply within the memory, culture and sensation that inhabit my engagements with flora and fauna of Yunnan, as well as my experience with people that are deeply connected to this land. As I trace my memories with the land throughout the years, deeper and further, divergences begin to emerge. I find intricate connections between my experience and the experience of other people. Through reading and studying ethnic materials such as literature and poetry, observing and participating in activities and events, I find similarities based on our interactions with familiar objects that come from the land. Whether it is a pine tree in the woods, a mushroom under the leaves or a bush of berries. The idea of placing my lived experience with the land in the context of people who are also closely connected to the land is intriguing. Among the ethnic materials I studied, there is an epic poem about the arduous historical migration of Hani People of Yunnan. The poem tells the stories of resilience, humility and responsiveness of the Hani people throughout the migration. I relate myself to the land that Hani people travelled through about 1,000 years ago, as the places, animals, plants, people in the poem have also been essential to my lived experience. I base my explorations of graphic narratives on the interactions and inspirations of personal memory and the knowledge from the Hani migration poem. My studio work, as well as this writing, is an oscillating process between my lived experience and received knowledge; it is a space where intrapersonal and interpersonal dialogues happen, all of which are based on the land and things that have come from the land. Through these explorations of storytelling, I hope to convey the harmonious, earth-centered relationship of people and the land to my audience, to investigate the potential application of such storytelling experience, and also to reconnect myself to the memory that shaped my view of the world.