行为艺术文化关系殖民史福建历史反思
这是一个放大的搓衣板和铁路的混合体。搓衣板是在中国各地普遍使用的手工洗衣的用具，通常为木质长条，两头平整，中间部分为齿锯状的横槽。
这个放大的搓衣板长12米，宽3米，高0.5米，它的主体完全由3米长的竹筒构成，在它们的上面安装两条特制的铁轨。在齿锯状的横槽部分，铁轨随着整个“搓衣板”的构造而曲折起伏，这样构成一段特殊的“铁路”。
从旧金山登上美国大陆的第一代老华工，参加了美国西部（即加利福尼亚州）的大开发，也参加了横贯美国东西海岸的太平洋铁路的修建，从1865年到1869年四年间，约有14000多名华工参加筑路工程。大量华工在筑路中牺牲了生命。而除了修路和采矿之外，华人最普遍的工作就是洗衣。因为洗衣不需本钱，也由于加州正在开发时代，男多女少，很需要这个行业；同时这种劳苦利薄的事，别人也不愿做。
这个平卧在地面的纪念碑意在唤起早期华人在美国的经历的历史记忆。我不知道当年旧金山的华人洗衣房是否出现过用搓衣板来洗衣的景象，这一来自旧中国的生活用具经常被作为艰苦生活的隐喻，它本身甚至经常用作体罚的刑具（跪搓衣板）。这个纪念碑的齿锯状起伏的横槽部分也可以看作是太平洋铁路中那些艰险复杂的地形的形象。由竹筒和铁轨构成的这个造型是一个可以在水中漂浮起来的竹筏子，希望它让人想起那些今天还在飘洋过海寻找“美国梦”的人。这种洗衣板的类似结构其实也经常使用航海上的挡水板或称防浪板---缚于船边或港基的薄木板。用来阻挡海水及其喷溅。
这个纪念碑的理想安放地点是旧金山的唐人街的街头，它的高度可以为行人提供休息座椅。
Monument of Bamboo Curtain
This proposal make for those people who had moved from the south-east littoral of China ----they came to America to looking for the “Golden Mountain” since mid-1800 till now. some of them had found a foothold somewhere in the new continent by hard working, some of them had backed to their motherland with their successful or frustrated experience; as well as some of them died here and some even died on the ship before their landing. There were imaginations in both side of this Bamboo Curtain: there was the oriental empery, immemorially and mysteriously, and here is good possibility of success, the “Golden Mountain”.
Maybe someday, the Bamboo Curtain will disappear on this globe, so, this proposal could be regard as the Monument of Bamboo Curtain --- ahead of schedule.
On the beach of California, facing the Pacific Ocean, build a special “railway” in plumb to the shoreline, 1 KM. The sleeper of this railway is replace by thick bamboo----six bamboo could be a group to replace one normal crosstie.
The railway will extend to the ocean from the beach. On the beach, the bamboo sleeper will half bury in the sand. The part of the railway on the ocean, the bamboo sleeper will be more glomerate so the railway can float on the surface of the water. This part of the railway actually became a floating dock, or a big bamboo catamaran. It will rise and fall in or as if in waves.
Parallel to the shoreline, in plumb to the special “railway”, set up a bamboo great wall, 500m long and 3m high. two rail installed on the wall horizontally. I the middle of the wall, where crossing the railway, there will be the silhouette figure of a Chinese traditional torii. Different with the normal torii, here the gate of the torii all stem by bamboo. You can only recognize the Chinese traditional torii with the silhouette, and the construction of this torii is also link with the rail.
‘Railway ’ on the see: 400m, from the shoreline to the bamboo wall, 100m,and the other side of the bamboo wall is another 500m railway.
2 Monument of China town in San Francisco
This is an admixture of the railway and the “washboard”.
The so called “washing board” is a special tool for washing cloths, diffusely used in all over China. A board having a corrugated surface on which clothes can be rubbed in the process of laundering. It usually made of A long narrow piece of square wood, with dentes in the middle part and smooth in the two end.
This big “washboard” will be 12m long, 3m width and 0.5m high. The main body of it is made of bamboo, and two rail installed on the surface of it. At the dentes crosspiece, the rail also In a zigzag pattern, follow the whole pattern of the “washboard”, so it become a special railwal.
The first generation of the overseas Chinese “coolie” in America had taken part in the great exploitation of California, and they were the important builders of the transcontinental railway of USA. From 1865 to 1869, at less 14000 coolies were fight for this project and thousands of people died during the process. Besides the job of building railway and mining, the most prevalent job of Chinese immigrant then was washhouse because they didn’t need capital in this trade, and it was such a hard job and narrow margin of profit that the other phyle of people hard to bear it.
This monument that lay down on the ground try to evoke the historical memory of the experience of the inchoate American Chinese. I don’t know at that time, if the Chinese washhouse used the “washboard ” or not. But in China, traditional, this daily tool often use as a metaphor of the hard live. And it even become the instruments of torture sometimes----a corporal punishment was to ask people kneel down on the washboard. The dentes in the middle part can be also regards as the Sierra Nevada Mountains----lots of people died when building the transcontinental railway.
And, this construction that build with bamboo and rail also looks like a bamboo catamaran, I hope that will make the visitors think about the storm-tossed people who still searching for their “American Dream” today. Actually, the similar pattern of the washboard is very useful when sailing---- A thin plank fastened to the side of a boat or to the sill of a port to keep out the sea and the spray.
A ideal location of this monument will be the street of China town in San Francisco, the high of it is design for seat.
Qiuzhijie