CARINA ZHANG
I powered through this book with homesickness! Dashilar, a street that never sleeps, is the memory of my forever-busy childhood. The process provided me a chance to research the street foods I miss and an opportunity to share them with my foreign friends. I think successful reportage should not only inform but also evoke.
Besides communicating information or knowledge about one thing to the viewer, the illustrated report is more potent if it can stimulate the viewer’s critical thinking about one historical event/ social discourse or the interest and love of a kind of food, place, culture, etc. With this idea in mind, I used the accordion book as a format to depict the street. The reader can flip the street image and reveal the food being sold. I intended to mimic my experience of walking on a street, being curious about what smells so good, and finally seeing and getting the food.
While sketching the street, many memories popped up: dogs chasing each other, sellers peddling, and my glasses were always clouded by steam from their pots.
