Purify the soul

In Chinese they describe it as “净化心灵”, meaning ‘purify the soul’. We stayed on the farm ‘椿庭朴门’ nor far from Shanghai, with 大熊 (Big Bear) and his wife Moqi & their two daughters. The place is far from a typical Chinese rural farm. Here, everything is made from bright wood bend into various shapes, fit to match the ideas of 大熊. 大熊 is a former architect from Hubei, and calls his style ‘functional scenery’. The main shed for instance combines a living room with a canoe-building workshop, and a guesthouse above it. It all fits together SO well, as if it’s carefully designed to look a tiny bit careless. Outside, crops grow and chicken pok. We ate from the lands and any scraps were fed back to it — or to the poultry. And while everything around us seemed functional, we kinda did nothing for three days, apart from 净化心灵.