Beauty of Xiaohe , the female mummy which was discovered in 1934 by a Swedish scientist, is the most famous discovery of the Kroraina historical remains. As one of the important transportation hubs on the great Silk Road, Kroraina once was a bustling and well developed polis in ancient East Asia.
Time passed, Kroraina disappeared, but the historical remains were left behind. The grave and historical records have kept their culture for thousand years and await people from a completely new age to hear their story. Beauty of Xiaohe is a witness of history as she was a young bride who died before her wedding ceremony.
We don’t know much about her. Why did she die? Who is she? The untold history, her tragic love story is so powerful to me that I want to make something for her. In ancient Asian cultures, people wrote poems and verses for mourning their lost loved ones. Years pass, these people are gone, but the poems and verses preserve their stories and their love. It may be a good way to commemorate a young bride.
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Asian people wrote on paper, bamboo and bones in ancient times. Bamboo can be damaged easily, but paper and bones won’t. These two kind of materials can be last for thousands of years. The material itself is a metaphor of eternity, like love and longing.
Xuan Paper is a kind of soft paper used in East Asia for writing and drawing. It can be stored for more than a thousand years, five times longer than silk or other writing materials. Archaeologists can always find paintings or piece of calligraphy in ancient tombs drawn on Xuan Paper. Like Xuan paper, bones are also easy to save. Compared to any other material in the nature, bones can last the longest time in the natural environment.
No matter how the world changes, love never dies, and the history will never be forgotten.
Chen Chengzhi
thinkingthroughmakingsourcebook 