Making Life Difficult for Each Other:
A Dialogue with Designer Sankuanz

 




Sankuanz vs. Peng Wei
 
Sankuanz: Who is your hero?
Peng Wei: I don’t have one.
 
Sankuanz: Do you have good relationships with your professors from college?
Peng: Some were terrible, others were great. There’s only one that I’m still in touch with.
 
Sankuanz: Flatter him a little bit.
Peng: He was an angry, white-haired old professor. He taught classical literature, rode a bicycle, wore jeans, and argued with the security guards. He divorced and remarried his first wife. When his son died at 17, his hair went white overnight and they got divorced again. Later he dated one of his daughter’s classmates. Both tried to kill themselves out of passion and were unsuccessful, so they got married. The marriage didn’t work, so they got divorced. When he was 72 he married a 28 year-old student and they had a son. They got divorced, so he now raises the boy by himself. They live cleanly and simply. He’s over 80 but he’s still as angry as ever.
 
Sankuanz: What do you do when your love life isn’t going well?
Peng: I don’t do anything.
 
Sankuanz: Write down a line of poetry that made a significant impact on you.
Peng: When I speak of time, it is not yet. When I speak of a place, it has disappeared.
When I speak of a man, he's already dead. When I speak of time, it already is no more. –Jean Baudrillard
 
Sankuanz: When you go to karaoke, which songs do you like to sing?
Peng: I go once a year and I sing “The Price of Love.” This is the only song that I don’t sing out of tune.
 
Sankuanz: How do you act when you drink?
Peng: I never learned how, I don’t drink, and I don’t try to, so I come off pretty well.
 
Sankuanz: Have you recently drooled?
Peng: The most recent instance was four years ago. I was a reporter and I went to a conference. I fell asleep on the table. It was great. It seemed like I drooled, but then it seemed like I didn’t. I just remember that the conference really put me to sleep. After I became a painter, that never happened again.
 
Sankuanz: What’s the most vulgar thing you have ever done?
Peng: Everything I do is vulgar. I don’t know which of them is worse. I might be perpetually vulgar.
 
Sankuanz: What musical instruments can you play?
Peng: I can play two songs on the guzheng, but when I play, other people think that I’m playing something that I made up. They don’t know it’s the famous Autumn Wind Poem and Guanshan Moon. Does that count?
 
Sankuanz: What is the most disgusting thing you have ever eaten?
Peng: Stir-fried liver in Beijing. It smells terrible.
 
Sankuanz: Do you really think that your catalogs aren’t terrible?
Peng: Ha ha. Wasn’t that question a little terrible?
 
Sankuanz: Do you have a diamond?
Peng: Yes, it’s 0.0001 carats.
 
Sankuanz: Have you ever gotten in a fight?
Peng: Once, when I was in the third grade. It was with my younger cousin over a piece of cake. At the time, his nose ran and he was ugly. I wouldn’t have hit him if he was cute.
 
Sankuanz: What position are you used to sleeping in?
Peng: Before I started working, or that is to say, before I became an adult, I had to have the blanket wrapped tightly around me. Now it changes every day.
 
Sankuanz: What is the most stressful thing that has happened to you recently?
Peng: Someone called me, “Teacher Peng Wei.” That’s a lot of pressure.
 
Sankuanz: Say something that you don’t believe.
Peng: The works of the great masters are stunning!
 
Sankuanz: Are you lonely?
Peng: I’m not lonely. Sometimes I’m a little lost.
 
Sankuanz: Can you describe the dream that has made the biggest impact on you?
Peng: I don’t care about dreams. I think that every love is like a dream, and it makes s deep impact.
 
Sankuanz: What is your star sign?
Peng: Virgo.
 
Sankuanz: What will you be doing in thirty years?
Peng: It will be like now. I’ll be living, painting… or I won’t be here at all.
 
Sankuanz: Have you painted your father?
Peng: I’ve painted him. I’ve also painted my mother. She loves to sleep, and it’s easy to paint someone who isn’t moving.
 
Sankuanz: Tell me about the item of clothing that you have the deepest attachment to.
Peng: When I was five, my mother bought me a green wool dress. There were pom-poms on the top part and a row of little embroidered people. At the time, my family was very poor. I think the dress cost 15 RMB, and I thought this was the most luxurious and most beautiful dress. I only wore it for photographs, during the holidays, when we had guests, or when I received an award. Three years later, I still wore it even though the sleeves were too short. I wore it until I couldn’t get into it anymore. I’m wearing that dress in almost all the pictures taken of me between the ages of five and nine.
 
Sankuanz: What present would you most like to receive?
Peng: I haven’t thought about it. I think I’m past the age of hoping for presents. When I was ten, I really wanted a doll.
 
Sankuanz: If the end of the world was upon us, how would you waste your remaining time?
Peng: I’m always wasting my remaining time. I seize the moment. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the end of the world. Every day is the end of the world, and every day is a good day.
 
Peng Wei vs. Sankuanz
 
Peng Wei: What is your star sign?
Sankuanz: Capricorn.
 
Peng: Why did you get married so young?
Sankuanz: Ugh.
 
Peng: What will you do if you meet another woman who excites you?
Sankuanz: I’m just glad that I haven’t met a man that excites me.
 
Peng: When you see someone buying your clothing, but it doesn’t really fit him or her, what do you think?
Sankuanz: She must really love me.
 
Peng: Who is your favorite designer or artist? They can be living or dead.
Sankuanz: Ancient alchemists.
 
Peng: What is the sexiest part of the human body?
Sankuanz: The genitals.
 
Peng: What kind of woman do you most dislike?
Sankuanz: A schemer.
 
Peng: What kind of man do you most dislike?
Sankuanz: A snob.
 
Peng: Which part of your face do you like most? Which do you like least?
Sankuanz: I like my brow bone. I don’t like my beard. I’ve always wanted it to be thicker.
 
Peng: Do you wear pajamas to bed? What do you wear? Or…?
Sankuanz: Underpants.
 
Peng: What position do you sleep in?
Sankuanz: I often sleep as pictured below:
Description: http://images.theage.com.au/ftage/ffximage/2008/08/08/jesus_narrowweb__300x448,0.jpg
 
Peng: How did you feel when you made your first garment?
Sankuanz: Exhausted.
 
Peng: Tell me about the item of clothing that you have the deepest attachment to.
Sankuanz: My school uniform. Although it wasn’t compulsory at the time, I made a few sets and wore them constantly for six years.
 
Peng: Do you like excitement? Do you like going to lively places? Why?
Sankuanz: Sometimes when I’m down I go to lively places to look at women.
 
Peng: Did you have a professor that you particularly liked or disliked? Why?
Sankuanz: We didn’t talk much, so I didn’t have any particular feelings. I’m thankful to them for letting me graduate on time.
 
Peng: When you’re not working, what do you like to do most?
Sankuanz: Reading.
 
Peng: What do you usually eat for breakfast?
Sankuanz: I haven’t eaten breakfast since I left my hometown.
 
Peng: What is the first thing you do after you finish eating?
Sankuanz: I read a book.
 
Peng: Do you watch the news?
Sankuanz: I watch the news as a novelty. I like nature or animal documentaries better.
 
Peng: What is the thing you most want to do right now?
Sankuanz: Experience a Bolivian summer.
 
Peng: Apart from designing clothing, what thing or activity most captivates you?
Sankuanz: Ancient symbols and superstitious things.
 
Peng: What do you think have been your worst designs?
Sankuanz: The ones that were only for a quick buck.
 
Peng: Do you notice people’s measurements?
Sankuanz: I notice my own waist measurement and women’s bust measurements.
 
Peng: What is the word or phrase you say most often?
Sankuanz: So…
 
Peng: Do you think you are successful? What do you think success is?
Sankuanz: Success is having enough money and good health to travel the world.
 
Peng: Say something that you don’t believe.
Sankuanz: Making life difficult for each other like this is interesting.
 
Peng: What do you most fear?
Sankuanz: I hope to avoid natural disasters.
 
Peng: What do you do when your love life’s not going well?
Sankuanz: I read.
 
Peng: Write down a line of poetry that made a significant impact on you.
Sankuanz: "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
 
Peng: When you go to karaoke, which songs do you like to sing?
Sankuanz: “Sun Wukong” by Mayday
 
Peng: How do you act when you drink?
Sankuanz: When we have the chance, let’s have a few bottles and find out.
 
Peng: What’s the most vulgar thing you have ever done?
Sankuanz: I put salt cubes in the sugar cube bowl.
 
Peng: What musical instruments can you play?
Sankuanz: Guitar