Portrait of a FengGuo Box Artist

Self-avowed eccentric and non-conformist Wang Xun fills her FengGuo Box with China's present and past.

Reminiscent of Shanghai Tang's mod qipao, Wang designs a series of Chinese-style purses that juxtapose contemporary, fresh color palettes with traditional Chinese patterns and themes. One tote bag, neon orange with red trim, features the Chinese “double-happiness character” and a tassel that she found at Panjiayuan, Beijing's antique bazaar. Claiming that the purse mirrors her world view, she says, "My personality is a mixture of Chinese style and young, modern weirdness. I combine the two in my art, and it's fun."

Proudly sporting her homemade black corduroy jacket with qipao collar that is as much punk rock as it is Qing-dynasty fashion, Wang shows off her designs like one would a political advocacy button. "I hope to show people that tradition is something that grows with us," she said, "It isn't just something dead and in the past." Wang, who was raised in a hutong, or residential sidestreet in one of Beijing's traditional districts, has long cherished Panjiayuan as a favorite hangout. By combining contemporary and traditional design, she hopes to turn old-fashioned Chinese aesthetics into a continuing narrative, and breath life into Panjiayuan's dusty curios.

Unlike Wang's purses, Lou Yingying's knitted, breast-shaped pillows are an intentional departure from sociopolitical messages and other heavy motifs. Lou laughs at the thought that her black busts are sometimes interpreted as a social statement-- "Though I do find the female form beautiful, these objects are not about proving anything about sex," she said.

Rather, bored by the unfeeling paperwork and statistics of her day- job as a SIM card company data processor, she uses the piece to escape the daily grind and create something "fun and light-hearted."

Albeit more symbolic, Wang's designs have also tapped the power of the human body to shock others. She has created a series of gray cloth human busts filled with blood-red hearts and intestines. Exposing her physical innards, Wang claims that the models illustrate her "inner-certainty and ambivalence."