Chasing new arts

Singer-songwriter Long Kuan has given herself a new identity: a designer of eco-friendly products, including the wooden necklaces, which she makes out of recycled materials. [Photo/China Daily]

With no idea about what to do with the studio at the beginning, they started with cleaning and decorating the house themselves. They collected lots of abandoned old furniture and made decorations from used materials, such as a piece of clothing made from jeans and a round table made from a cable reel.

"It has become our habit to seek valuable stuff in dumps," says Bo Niu, one of the co-founders of the studio. Both Bo and Long are vegetarians, and they became friends at a vegetarian party years ago. "She is full of ideas. None of us knew how to turn a piece of useless wood into a doll or a plate. We learned together from zero."

Long is also devoted to animal protection and has made a two-minute movie, Robbers, which was inspired by her recent trip to Elephant Nature Park, an elephant rescue and rehabilitation center in Northern Thailand.

She has been in no hurry to return to the music scene. After signing with Beijing-based indie music label Taihe Rye Music this year, she has released just two singles, Up 2 You and Hi, Here I Am.

"I have never relied on music to survive. Music was my hobby, and now I have found new hobbies," she says.

Born in Beijing, Long moved with her parents to southern China, where she studied piano. Like many teenagers, Long became a rock fan in middle school, and her life was changed by an interview of Cui Jian, who has been hailed as Chinese godfather of rock 'n' roll.

"Most young people live the way their parents expected. I don't know - who dares to make decisions for themselves?" Cui said in the interview. At 15, Long decided to drop out of school and become a singer-songwriter.

"My parents thought I was crazy, but I insisted. I don't want to live my life in vain," says Long.

Her first single, Light, was released by China's biggest indie music label, Modernsky, in 1997. A year later, when she was backpacking in Britain, she formed the pop-punk band Mika Bomb, along with lead singer Mika Handa, in London. Soon the band signed up with indie music label Grand Royal.

For a very long time, Long recalls, she lived a surreal life. In the daytime, she washed dishes at restaurants and cleaned toilets in hospitals to make ends meet. At night, she performed with the band, receiving cheers from the audiences.