From early morning, the streets of Baoshan district fill with electric scooters: the logistics workforce, delivery riders, students, small artisans. Some work in the informal economy of waste collection. Riders are everywhere, fast and silent, occupying the space 24/7. During winter months, many use an accessory that was new to my eyes: the scooter blanket.
It's a windproof cover that fastens to the handlebars through two sleeves for arms and hands, attached to a long quilted layer that shields the torso, legs, and feet from wind and cold.
In Shanghai, scooter blankets are a mass-market product. They remain parked on the scooter like exposed saddlery in public space. The pattern is almost always the same; what changes is the graphic treatment: different colors, allover prints, a pop and kawaii aesthetic.
Constant outdoor exposure makes them wear out quickly. They're seasonal, low-quality products sold for around 60-100 RMB on major online marketplaces. The number of discarded blankets each year could be extremely high given the scale of two-wheeled traffic, with significant environmental impact from disposing of polyester and synthetic fibers. This issue, combined with a natural empathy for the colorful and diverse world of riders, led us to imagine a dual function.
The quilt stops being merely a shield from the cold: it becomes a reversible, multifunctional garment that lives on and off the motorcycle. Gucun Parka is a tribute to the riders, to China's two-wheeled population, to Gucun Park—where I spent a month in residency at PACC (Public Art Coordination Center), a spin-off of Shanghai University—and to that great laboratory in constant metamorphosis that is the city of Shanghai.
Gucun Parka emerges from the encounter between two perspectives: the external observer's viewpoint and the internal inhabitant's experience—just like the encounter between Talking Hands and Xu Hunan. The material research followed the same direction: not commercial polyester, but "cloth of the earth" (土布, tǔbù), loom-woven textiles, beautiful and remarkably durable, carrying within them a deep connection to Chinese textile tradition.
