In an article in Southern People Weekly, ‘Left-behind children addicted to their phones: a lonely and “trapped” childhood,’ it is stated: ‘Research by Xia Zhuzhi, an associate professor at Wuhan University, shows that rural youth are the hardest hit by the problem of mobile phone addiction. This is especially true for left-behind children, who are on the verge of losing control.’

During the foundation's visits to different rural areas, we found that mobile games and short videos have become the main content of rural children's daily lives during the summer vacation, and they have also become a direct way for them to understand the outside world. Although unscreened and fragmented information has shortened the gap in their perception of the outside world, it has also impacted children's feelings and perceptions of the real world. Therefore, we believe that, given the basic conditions, taking them to experience and observe real life in the outside world may be beneficial to building their ability to think independently.

Summer camp life not only allows children to temporarily escape from a living environment filled with ‘mobile games and short videos’, but also a time to reflect on and put into practice existing ‘information and experiences’. The theme of this summer camp is ‘sustainable living’, which was mainly considered because sustainable living has become a way of life that people must think about and practice. Before the trip, we asked the children for their understanding of a ‘sustainable lifestyle’. Most of the answers were: I don't know. But Zai Bin Jie from Grade 5 wrote: ‘I think sustainable living is the opposite of disposable living. I feel that this lifestyle is particularly like my grandfather's lifestyle, for example, using a cloth bag when going shopping, reusing disposable gloves after use, etc.’

Day1 2024/07/13

On 13 July 2024, with the support of MUJI's charity, the children boarded the high-speed train to Shanghai with curiosity and a desire to explore. Kang Boyang, who was in Shanghai for the first time, looked at the patches of forest on both sides of the viaduct and sighed, ‘Shanghai is not as prosperous as I thought.

Day2 2024/07/14

On the first day, the children visited the Shanghai Glass Museum, where they learned about the different ways glass can be transformed into art through guided tours and interactive games. They also learned about the characteristics of glass as a sustainable material. During the DIY session, everyone completed their first homemade telescope, which became the most photographed item over the next few days. The most surprising part was the thermal theatre, where the children watched an artistic performance that showed the whole process of glass fusing, shaping and breaking at temperatures of thousands of degrees. The children experienced the life of glass from a different perspective.


After the performance, the children, who were still full of energy, strongly requested to go and explore the glass maze. It was said that it would take 30-40 minutes to get out of the maze, but in the end, with everyone working together, they found the exit in less than 15 minutes.

Day3 2024/07/15

In order to allow the children to fully express their preferences and wishes, we planned the content of the summer camp to include some ‘free’ time, so that the children could decide for themselves where to go. After discussing the matter the previous night, the children unanimously decided to go to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. The children, who had never seen the sea before, saw different marine creatures from all over the world in the aquarium. Everyone looked carefully like little detectives to find the animal they were most interested in. An ‘interesting’ dialogue also took place in the aquarium –

BCAF: ‘How did you feel about coming to the aquarium today?’

Zhaibin Jie: “It was so dreamlike.’

BCAF: ”So would you like to be a fish in your next life?’

Zhaibin Jie: “I want to be a fish in the aquarium.’

BCAF: ”Why?’

Zhaibin Jie: ’Because I'll get free food and accommodation.’


In the afternoon, everyone went to the naze naze fabric studio to experience the aesthetic education practice of inspired colour matching and making pom-poms from leftover fabric. Upon arriving at the studio on the third floor of the Shangsheng Xinsuo, the children freely claimed the naze naze postcards they were interested in as a reference for colour matching inspiration. Faced with the same photo, the children showed completely different ways of expressing themselves.

Zhao Zhenyu, 13, extracted a touch of blue from the picture of the pony from Russia and Asia. When asked why the brown colour block almost corresponds to the horse in the picture, but the blue was strengthened in his painting process, he said, ‘I feel that the blue makes it freer.’



During the activity of making pom-poms from waste materials, when everyone learned that the theme of the activity was to make a gift for their family, many children chose to stay for a while after the activity was over because they wanted to make a few more, which they could give to their parents, sisters or brothers when they went home.

Day4 2024/07/16

After breakfast, the children took Metro Line 2 to the MUJI Shanghai headquarters for a tour and sustainable living experience. Volunteers from the MUJI Volunteer Team explained to the children the past and present of OBP (Ocean Bound Plastic, ocean-bound recycled plastic) as a sustainable recycled material, and incorporated the concept of marine environmental protection into the intangible weaving handicraft workshop. The children each chose OBP strips of their favourite colour and completed an environmentally friendly handbag designed and hand-woven by themselves.



In the Open MUJI space at Huaihai 755, children revisited the theme of this summer camp and, led by volunteers, picked up their paintbrushes to create their imagination of ‘sustainable living’.

Day5 2024/07/17

In order to give children an experience of the operation of an organic farm that is different from traditional farming, everyone went to MUJI FARM, located in Shanghai Jiu Shan Farm. Under the guidance of the farm staff, the children entered a ‘biodiversity’ greenhouse, observing and picking plants from different regions of the country in preparation for the next plant stamping activity. With the sound of hammering, the children began the plant stamping activity by the river. The leaves and petals they picked turned into butterflies flying in the sky and little fish swimming in the water in their hands, vividly appearing on the canvas bags.



The children then entered the organically grown vegetable garden to pick and taste the vegetables, and gain a preliminary understanding and knowledge of the differences between organic and conventional agriculture. During the part where they tried to identify the vegetables and fruits, we found that the children knew very little about many of the crops, and it was even the first time they had experienced working in the fields in the summer. After the harvest, the sweaty children carefully washed the tomatoes and shared them with everyone.

Finally, the children learned to pack the freshly picked vegetables, drew their own graffiti and messages, and took the vegetables they had picked, cleaned and packed to the MUJI Qiantan Taikoo Li store to give away to passers-by for free, passing on the love they had received.

Day6 2024/07/18

During our few days in Shanghai, we noticed that the boys had the habit of ‘picking up cigarette boxes’. They would sort the cigarette boxes and make them into a kind of card for collecting and playing with. Since some of the children arrived a little early, two boys circled the building of the Power Station of Art (PSA) to try to find some cigarette boxes they had not seen before. In the end, the child who found nothing lamented, ‘It's so clean here, not a bit of rubbish, probably 100 cleaners were hired to clean it.’

The last day's itinerary was mainly designed to give the children an opportunity to experience the ‘Impermanence: 40 Years of Design by Campana Studio’ exhibition, organised by the Power Station of Art (PSA) and Studio Campana. The Campana brothers use leftover materials and waste to redesign and create new life, which is very much in line with the theme of this summer camp. The children were fascinated by the Campana brothers' childhood stories and the various strange furniture and artworks made from recycled materials, and stopped to watch.



After lunch, the children were divided into two groups under the guidance of PSA staff. They used cardboard to divide the work and rebuild the buildings. They also used various colours of ultra-light clay to create exterior decorations and interior furnishings for the buildings that were about to be completed. The children each chose the work that had the deepest impression on them from the exhibition and created it in clay. In the end, two buildings full of children's memories and joy were created.


For the children, every day of observation, experience and communication is a new understanding of this strange city. Some will be overjoyed at finding the exit in the glass maze, while others will be saddened that a cup of milk tea costs 20 yuan. Some children lament that Shanghai is really a congested city with many people and cars, but this deepens their understanding that sustainable living is a new way of processing and reusing waste, and they want to learn and understand more.


Clouds over Dananpo, photo by Kang Boyang

On 29 July 2024, Kang Boyang, who had been back in Dananpo for some time, sent a message: ‘Teacher, I took a picture of a cloud. Do you want to see it?’

Aesthetic education may simply involve teaching children to appreciate the beauty of everyday life.