Handmade, 2026
Softcover, 34 pages, 320 × 215 mm
Edition of 10
Text in English
《寻隐者》
My mother once learned herbal healing from Miao doctors in the mountains of Guizhou. Since 2022, I have followed her back to them, and in time spent two years learning from them myself. I climbed the slopes with them to learn the plants, watched them read pulses and prepare poultices, and listened as they told me which teacher each remedy had come from.
In the villages of Qiandongnan, these doctors are still the ones people turn to when nothing else has worked. Their knowledge is carried through apprenticeship, through plants gathered on the slopes, and through trust built over years between doctor and patient. The young are leaving, and fewer people now know which plants to gather.
Many of the people in these photographs are also my teachers. When I call them, the line often does not go through. There is no signal up in the mountains. They are out somewhere, gathering herbs.
The cover is made from handwoven Miao cloth with a batik bird motif, and each copy is sewn by hand. The cloth comes from the same land as the herbs in these pages.