A Southern Journey on Paper: Experience Southern Charm Without Leaving Home
"The Last Giants" (Francois Place) is a picture book. The picture book depicts the exploration of the unknown world, the courage to travel and adventure, and the encounters and clashes between different civilizations brought about by the explorer's writings.
The giants in the book are a microcosm of the natural world. Their bodies bear tattoos of trees, mountains and rivers, flowers, grasses, and animals. They look with pity upon the explorer who has intruded into the giants' world, because he does not know how to use his bodily senses to understand the natural world. In the eyes of the giants, the explorer is a mute skinned creature; he is a man without language.
The story unfolds sorrowfully, because the protagonist always carries a sense of civilizational superiority, regarding this strange discovery and experience of his as an achievement. It is evident that there is a notion of the "other," and it is not a state of harmonious coexistence. In the end, because his travelogue of the land of the giants causes a sensation, it leads to the destruction of the giants.
Most of the time, we are accustomed to viewing the things before our eyes through our own ideas and ways of thinking. Some people rarely manage to set aside work and set aside their vexing worldly affairs to go into the countryside and draw close to rural life, yet some leave with feelings of disappointment or boredom.
Because perhaps you do not know: most rural settlements have no brightly lit 7-Eleven, no convenient toilets, no well-developed infrastructure, and even the interpretation, industry experiences, and local-flavor meals offered directly to you may seem a bit "clunky."
Therefore, if we examine such conditions with a "city" perspective and a "self" perspective, disappointment and criticism are unavoidable.
In recent years, Taiwanese society has gradually shaped and developed a kind of leisurely, unhurried aesthetic attitude toward life. Phrases like "slow living" have quietly woven through and permeated our surroundings; everyone can speak of them fluently, and they have become a kind of fashion. We believe that a life attitude grounded in "slow living" should also include this kind of deeper spiritual awareness, because only then is it possible for you to care for the things before your eyes with local thinking, and only then can you gain from it feelings different from anything you have experienced before.
No. 9, Tuyao Lane, Nanxi Village, Dongshan District, Tainan City
"Tou Nan Feng" is the first publication we founded. We hope that through such writing, imagery, and design, we can convey the South's distinctive cultural industries, life wisdom, and a faintly radiating kind of warm and comfortable local aesthetics.
In Tou Nan Feng's present and future, we will tell you many, many stories from the settlements of the South: about the solar terms, about labor, culture, craft, and industry, and also about people. I believe that for most readers these things are also an "unknown" world worth exploring and experiencing. And in such a process, how we can set aside the viewpoint of the "other" and come to know and identify with this world with a broader vision is a discipline and attitude we should all learn together.
We hope that friends who join us should, at certain moments, set aside their own subjective imaginings and approach our land with a broader posture closer to local people and closer to diverse cultures.
"The imagined country has already opened its gates to welcome our visit.
Inside there are the imaginings of cartographers and also the special intelligence brought back by explorers.
In the settling of time and splendid memories, welcome to take a static, paper journey."
—-Francois Place
About Tou Nan Feng
In meteorology, the "south wind" refers to the warm air current blowing up from the south. Because it is warm, it is humid; this is a natural phenomenon closely tied to the movement of the solar terms. Friends in the north or friends living in cities are a bit distant from the land and the solar terms, so it is not easy for them to notice changes in the environment. Friends in the south, especially those engaged in agriculture, however, labor and rest according to the solar terms.
Tou Nan Feng Studio is made up of young people who have long been engaged in video creation, community building, and artistic and cultural work in southern Taiwan. Because they love this uniquely southern scent, uphold an attitude of sharing with others, and also carry somewhat seriously a measure of responsibility for social reform, they founded this beautiful dream branded "South"! Taking land, culture, and solar terms as our initial inspiration, [Tou Nan Feng] is an atmosphere we want to express, a breath!
The themes of "Tou Nan Feng," or those introduced by Tou Nan Feng, may be unfamiliar and novel, yet to us they are all people, things, and matters extremely familiar from long-term life and work. Although these are deeply impressive, due to limitations of time and work, they have always remained in our minds, constantly accumulating. As social change develops ever more rapidly, I think the time has come. So we spent a great deal of time brewing, eagerly and sincerely wanting to let everyone know about these interesting and fascinating stories happening on the land of the South, hoping that, like little flowers growing in the countryside, they will bloom one by one, elegantly and simply.
The theme of the inaugural issue of the quarterly is "Deep Cultivation." The earthen-kiln-baked longan and coffee beans in the article are all related to the word "cultivate." Cultivation is also related to the land. As for the deeper meaning, it is that we hope to deeply "cultivate" companionship with the people, things, and matters of the South, and also to express that Tou Nan Feng has a deep connection with the land.
With joy and trepidation, we present the quarterly to share with everyone. We hope you can feel our creativity and dedication, and support us with action as we continue to report on the fascinating stories of the South.
