Meet Odding: She Got a Trip to Italy for Cutting Up a Notebook
We’re probably a little biased, but we can’t deny there’s craploads of creative energy in Beijing today, and we’re all better off for it. On days we meet someone like Odding and hear her story, we’re even more convinced there’s something in the air. So how did she go from cutting up a notebook to being offered the chance to travel anywhere in the world, and then to gearing up for book deals with National Geographic? Read on to find out.
As part of this year’s Bookworm International Literary Festival, beloved notebook-makers Moleskine are holding a tiny exhibit of winning projects from their MyDetour competition. They’re hoping to hold the competition – which invites Moleskine fans to submit creative projects using their Moleskine journals – in Beijing sometime in the near future, but are still staking out the right partnerships. For now, you can take a look at winners from past competitions at The Bookworm until the end of the BLF.
When the competition took place in Shanghai in 2010, Odding Wang – who earned a Masters in Architecture from Tianjin University – jumped at the opportunity. She heard about the competition only seven days before the deadline, so she got to work on her project, working from 3pm to 6 or 7am each day. Behold, the fruits of her labor:
This is probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen anyone do with a notebook. Especially in just seven days. You can view the entire project, in which Odding tells her story through a series of delicate paper-cut images and words, here.
In the spirit of great conversations about Chinese people’s English names, Odding told us excitedly that she chose her name because she loves being odd, and “-ing” is her favorite suffix. (Could she be any more charming?) She gets even more excited when she starts talking about all that’s happened to her since her project, “My Sea,” won the MyDetour competition.
For one, a Baidu subsidiary tracked her down and offered her an all-expenses-paid opportunity to travel anywhere she wanted to in the world. "It's easy, I chose Italy! Of course Italy!“ she cried. Among her reasons: It's the center of art, with the Etruscans and the Renaissance, and of course its architectural legacy. "I’ve always loved art and architecture and I want to go there to soak it all in.”
All this has also opened doors for her to do writing and illustration projects with some big name publications. She's asked us not to reveal them just yet, since her projects are still in working stages. But one of them involves the unexplored ruins in Siem Reap, Cambodia – far beyond Angkor Wat, so just imagine the biggest names in publishing touching on exploration of world cultures, and you'll probably be on the right track.
“I also want to write books, make graphic novels and do stop-motion animation. And make apps for mobile devices.” Her online profile also says she’s a songwriter. I’m not sure when she sleeps. Heck, I’m not even sure when she can take a bathroom break.
Just two days ago, she received word that her submission for a United Nations Development Programme project has been selected to represent the East Asia region. Her work: a one-page comic that expresses her concerns about climate change by illustrating strange seasonal phenomena in Beijing, Nanjing, Tianjin and Dalian:
She seems to be celebrating one success after another, and is ready to seriously pursue her creative endeavors, exclaiming, “After all this, I decided to move to Beijing. This is the place to be for me.”
Moleskine, who are doing a limited edition journal in partnership with the BLF this year, is excited about watching their competition winners engage in bigger and more exciting projects.
Two years ago, the MyDetour competition in Shanghai was paired with a similar exhibit featuring famous Chinese authors, artists, filmmakers, including Han Han, Jia Zhangke, Yang Yongliang, Ma Yansong and Ou Ning among other international cultural heavyweights. You can view galleries of their notebook creations here.
This was the company’s first foray into connecting with fans of their notebooks and journals here in China, and they’re hoping to do more.
The company’s Asia brand manager, Conseulo Romeo, told us they’re working with Ou Ning (filmmaker/artist/writer/activist … if he can’t decide what he is, we can’t either) on a project in Anhui that incorporates skilled traditional artisans.
We look forward to seeing how these partnerships develop, and for the MyDetour competition to come through Beijing. In the meantime, check out Odding’s work on her website and be sure to visit the actual notebook on display at The Bookworm.
Photos: Marilyn Mai, Odding Wang
