Monsoon
~ a project of bamboo lanterns by @lin.nil.lin
Travelling on diasporic winds and reinvented in Los Angeles, Monsoon makes bamboo-and-paper lanterns as living objects of small rituals. It remakes lanterns that gently give shape to a contemporary lived experience, marking moments of the intimate and the communal: For solo evenings or shared meals. For rest, or for strength. For closing the day and holding space.
The journey is starting. Follow @monsoon_hour for coming updates 🏮#lanterns #chinese #traditionalcraft #bamboocraft
在亚洲诸多文化的生活实践里，人们用竹编灯笼用来标记共同的时间——新生与收获，季节的更替，抵达与告别。
沿着离散的风迁徙，一路到达加州。Monsoon把灯笼当作微小的仪式器物，再次漂流进日常，让灯笼在今天再次具备轻柔的力量：为当下的生活勾勒形状，照见亲密与群体的时刻——一个人的夜晚，或一桌人的饭；为歇息，也为攒起力量；为合上这一天，也为留出一块可以安放的空间。
每一只灯笼都用手慢慢编织，以竹条与细纸为骨与肤，在手、空气与时间共同劳作中成型。
这个旅程刚刚开始 🏮🏮🏮
《家艾食谱》是一本由廖家艾（Joyce Chen）1962年在美国出版的家常菜谱。在这本菜谱中，家艾为适应美国人的口味和美国的食材，重新修改了一系列中国菜谱。当翠西偶然发现这本菜谱时，这些在融入美国过程中产生的菜谱深深打动了她。作为一名新移民，她开始虔诚地复原书中的菜品——用雪莉酒代替料酒，意大利面代替中式面条。这也成为了她跨越时空与另一位女性移民对话的方式。1月7日，她召集了一群朋友，以“新鲜出国/Fresh Off The Wok”的名字做了一场《家艾食谱》品尝晚宴，用美食分享她感受到的情感。
晚餐由翠西、肠和佳韵主理，翠西和Wei掌勺。
Joyce Chen’s Cook Book 家艾食谱 is a home cooking recipe book published in 1962 in America. In this book, Joyce wrote down recipes that she adapted for the American tastebud and American grocery markets. When Cuixi found this book, she was deeply moved by these recipes of assimilation. As a new immigrant herself, she begin to restore dishes from this book religiously, using Dry Sherry to replace Chinese Rice Wine, spaghetti to replace noodle. It was also her way of connecting with another female immigrant across time. In Jan 7th, she gathered a group of friends and hosted a dinner tasting of Joyce Chen‘s Chinese recipes in the name of “Fresh Off The Wok / 新鲜出国”, as a way to share this sentiment through flavors.
This dinner was hosted by @lin.nil.lin@wata_watako_@11x111 and was cooked by @lin.nil.lin@thefakeweiding
Thank you to everyone who came to our launch party!! We had such a blast.❤️🔥🏮 So grateful for the moments of connection as we celebrated Lunar New Year. More to come soon 🐎
Horse-year lanterns by @monsoon_hour 🏮
Beautiful moments captured by @sight_photostudio ❣️
✧ 𝒮𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒞𝓊𝓅𝓈 𝐸𝒸𝒽𝑜 ✧
This Saturday, January 31st, please join us for a special evening of tea, sound, projections, and food at @oracle_egg
Seven Cups Echo is a quadrophonic participatory performance that explores the interaction of senses in the context of an intimate gongfu tea ceremony. As participants are invited to drink tea using an augmented tea set, their gestures shape an evolving landscape of sound and visuals, turning ritual into the co-creation of an evolving audiovisual environment.
We’re incredibly excited to finally debut this project in LA, and even more excited to do it with dear friends and collaborators!
✦ Come early and stay late for refreshments by @gu_grocery
✦ Drink from custom ceramic teacups by @gerindelcarmen on an augmented tea setup designed by @alvaro.makes.music
✦ Be mesmerized by @lin.nil.lin projections using super 8 footage captured by @marchaelmerza
Saturday, January 31
Doors 5pm, performance at 5:30
$20 **advance tickets come with an embroidered tea towel ~ come early to claim!**
Join us for a cozy launch party celebrating fengfeng ✨ 📍 @sight_photostudio (Bendix Building, DTLA) 🗓 Sat 2/7 | 4–8pm
After a long preparation, we’re finally debuting our new project fengfeng @ffee.nngg ! Come check out our new herbal accessories, sip tea, and gather for Lunar New Year–inspired activities, including Chinese couplet writing (Spring Couplets / 春联) to welcome the season ahead.
Monsoon @monsoon_hour hour will be featured with special lanterns, plus Year of the Horse–themed lanterns available for sale 🐴🏮
Come by, slow down, make something together, and celebrate with us. We’d love to see you there. <3
Activities 🍵 specialty tea from @chafolio along with delightful snacks 🧧 Spring Couplets (春联) writing
🪩RSVP link in bio🪩
Graphics by @lin.nil.lin 💗
2025 asked for faith. It was a year of taking leaps without knowing where I would land. At times I felt like a fish out of water, but there were also times when I sensed tiny bones and tetrapod limbs forming beneath my skin. In the quietest nights, I learned to regrow my roots underground and to listen through an unsettled body. Deep love to my old friends who reminded me of who I am, and my new friends who shared your imaginations. Miss you all, and can’t wait to see you again in 2026 🦋🦋🦋
Shanghai-based performance collective _ao_ao_ing (老妖精) is in the U.S.A. this month, hosting a special sharing event in both NYC and LA!!! Come say hi to this rare oddity in Chinese contemporary performance and beyond!!!
In these moments of togetherness, we will dive deep into our works and journey as an independent collective spanning six years, unpacking how our work emerges from situated relationships with place, people, and the margins of art production in China. It will also feature a special *auction* of a suitcase of surprise objects, leading you into pieces of our past (and collective future).
*Join us at the following amazing spaces in the two cities*
June 14th Sat. 3pm, Accent Sisters @accentsisters (NYC, Union Square) - RSVP link in bio
June 18th Wed. 4pm, Plot @plooooooot (LA, Chinatown) in conversation with CAO Collective @caocollective - link coming soon
Be ready to dig into…
How they performed in a sex toy shop (and why?)
How they drove a truck onto the beach
How they invented a “cultural heritage” in a rural village
How they sold cheap props in fancy Shanghai museums
How they found each other
How they fought with each other
How they ended up here
(This sharing will be joined by Cuixi Lin @lin.nil.lin & Selena Lyu @selena_lu_lu )
老妖精到了美国，打算在纽约和洛杉矶两地活动活动，欢迎大家来打个招呼！我们会诚实地讲述我们六个人作为独立小组的创作实践和集体历程，聊聊过去的作品如何从与地方、人群以及中国边缘艺术生产的具体关系中生长出来。除此之外，我们还从中国运来了一箱东西，会在现场特别拍卖——有关老妖精的过去、也指向共同的未来。（注：分享将由林翠西与吕雨舟主持，活动英文为主，闲聊什么语言都行！）
6/14 3pm 纽约 · accent sisters 重音姐妹
6/18 4pm 洛杉矶 · plot 田 (plz see our next post for rsvp info)
We always had immense trouble trying to answer the question: how to define 老妖精 _ao_ao_ing’s work? It is difficult to give a simple answer because each performance work is so different and charming to us. So after some serious drilling, our English website is finally ready for you to view. It includes most of our projects in the past six years and who we are individually. We hope you give it a chance, have some fun and get lost in the maze! Hope our online presence kicks off something fun in our shared future 🪩 🔫 🔮
aoaoing.com / link in bio
website designed by @lin.nil.lin
our collective’s website is finally ready for you all!!! proudly designed by me and my procrastination. It archives 80 percent of our past works in performance, exhibition, and other stuff. have fun and be lost 🥹
@_ao_ao_ing website link in bio 💗
Heads up Berlin! Our ensemble member Selena Lu has just landed in Germany and met up the Theatertreffen 2024 International Forum program with a group of world-class 🤩 performance/theatre artists on behalf of @_ao_ao_ing . Allegedly, this is the first time a Chinese theatre maker was selected to be on this panel 🥶 We are so thrilled and honored to be part of history and can’t wait to see what happens next! #theatertreffen
Always a joy to meet an old friend @pporicrazy from @teatergarasi 💗
