“naze naze weaving slowly” Dulong Project -

Behind the Exhibition in Bishan (2021)

Draw a Rainbow Together

The key exhibit is the “Rainbow Timeline”, defined and created around the idea of “time”. It tells the development and changes of the Dulong project for the past 6 years since its inception. The two piles of the Dulong carpet are made of about 600 rainbow-like yarns each and are ready for weaving. The colors are taken from the most common color schemes in Dulongjiang.

The exhibit was prepared by two weavers: Jin Chunhua and He Xiumei from Dulongjiang Village. They spent 8 hours to prepare the piece during their busiest farming season. After the yarns were shipped to Huangshan, two more days were spent to straighten them out.

The spirit of working together really helped a lot in the preparation process. The yarns are about 8 meters long, making these very difficult to untwine. The team tried to start from one end and did it by section, yet it did not work out since the yarns became tangled up. After discussion, they decided to work together to untwine the same strand of yarns at the sametime, with one stand in the front, middle and behind. When one person straightens the yarn, the next one will be able to untwine the yarns faster. After the two rainbow blankets were completed, we interviewed several participants to talk about their feelings when untwining the yarns.


"When I first saw the two beds of yarn, I felt that it was impossible to complete the task in two days with our hands. I felt very troublesome, and it was same for my teammates when they started the task. Fortunately, there is one person in our team who refused to give up – Xiangmei. Mei encouraged me a lot. When I calmed down to focus on the work, it became very fast. I felt so happy when I see the “rainbow” was coming to shape. When it was time to untwine the second pile of yarns, people from klee klee team and the Bishan team started to work together with clear roles. We finished the work within three to four hours. I am greatly inspired and empowered by everyone working toward the same goal. The task also changed my understanding of work and life. Same as the idea of “slow” conveyed by the brand value of klee klee, I learned to cope with difficulties and gained more spirit of perseverance. and my attitude towards work and life has also changed through this work of carding the yarn. I want to say thank you to all our colleagues who work together on this exhibition, they are very enlightening and inspiring.”


“I was quite relieved when I saw that they had successfully sorted out a pile of yarn; I joined them when they were working on the second pile of yarns, and I realized it was really difficult. It requires great patience and skills to untwine the yarns. You need to focus, and to work with everyone together to make a beautiful rainbow carpet.”

We are curious why the exhibition is conceived in such a difficult way, then we interviewed the exhibition designer to find out the reason behind.


"The naze naze project has been launched for 6 years, but it is only the beginning of its journey of development, which is like an infinitely extending rainbow, and everyone involved is a colorful line to the rainbow. Therefore, after visiting the exhibition space of Bishan Crafts Cooperatives, we came out with the idea of rainbow timeline. A square space with entrances on both the left and the right sides can be exactly connected by two sections of rainbows. At one end, the “rainbow” is under manufacturing, the rest part are yarns without being woven, which echoes with the growing naze naze project. It was out of our expectation that the design was actually really difficult to realize. The yarns looked neat but were messily intertwined when received, everyone was frustrated. However, Xiangmei came to me happily and told me that they finally made it happen! She took me to see the work done by everyone of the team, the result is amazing! Hundreds of messy yarns were untwined neatly, it is indeed great job! "

The first visitors

On the first day of the exhibition, we sincerely invited the neighbors in the village to come to the exhibition, many of them came with their families and pets to show their support.

A truth of life – to eat on time

If you are still working when it is time to eat, would you wait until you finished? No way! In Anhui, you need to have your meals closely upon the time. People say “Chi tianguang (eat the morning)” when referring to having breakfast and “Chi luohun (eat the dusk)” for having dinner. Then you have the sunrise and sunset in your bowl! “Chi dianxin (Having dim sun)” means having lunch, since there were only breakfast and dinner in ancient times, the lunch was not part of the routine but an extra supplement.

However, at Bishan Crafts Cooperatives, lunch is very important. It is when everyone sit down and eat together. Everyday at 11am, the chef Sister Ju will disappear from the exhibition site and bring many dishes on the table around 12pm, including Seasonal fresh bamboo shoots, bacon, river fishes, edamame and chicken soup, steaming food await people to start the feast. If one person did not come, everyone will wait together. Suddenly there is a sense of collectiveness and responsibility for eating. And in the week in Bishan, we all followed the local rule, leaving for lunch and putting down whatever we were doing when it was time. We noticed that there are something slightly changed under this mode, we gained more fun and relaxation when everyone eat together, and became less stressed about work, on the contrary, we feel more motivated and efficient when working.




Finally, a group photo taken at the exhibition site. Thank you all for for the hardwork and dedication! Wish all of klee klee’s friends and guests can eat on time and to have a happy new year!