The book “Hello Sister, Welcome to China” reflects the five-month stay of Markéta Mráčková and Barbora Šimonová in the fourteen-million-strong northern Chinese city of Tianjin, from September 2019 to January 2020. The book is inspired by the experiences and insights they gained while studying at the School of Architecture at Tianjin University as part of a research scholarship. It draws from personal experiences, local motifs, diary entries, and books and articles read. The book is published by the cultural cooperative cosa.cz. “It may not be possible to reflect the reality of such a contradictory system as the People’s Republic of China through personal stories. But perhaps with their help, we can bring readers closer to some aspects of the daily life of two Central Europeans in a nearly fourteen-million-strong northern Chinese city. For the book, we have selected interesting facts, information, and experiences that helped us understand the specifics of the local culture or clarify some Occidentally-Oriental misunderstandings. We want to illustrate how vague the average Central European’s idea of life in China is, which we are used to viewing through the logic of a completely different cultural and political background, values, and customs.” M. M. & B. Š.
Markéta Mráčková and Barbora Šimonová are architects and graduates of the School of Architecture AVU in Prague. They currently serve as assistants in the IV Architecture Studio at UMPRUM. In 2016, they founded the cultural cooperative cosa.cz, dedicated to architecture, art, music, literature, and film work. They are co-authors of the book The Legend of the Settlement (2015), published the translation of the stories Melancholy and the Adventurousness of Construction: 25 Forgotten Buildings by Gottfried Müller (2016), and since 2016 have been focusing on filming portraits of buildings arising in the 1980s. In 2020, they were nominated for the Architect of the Year award.
Copyright Authors Markéta Mráčková, Barbora Šimonová Graphic design Viktor Vejvoda Translations from Chinese, Czech transcription, and dictionary: Kačka Blátotlačka Editing: Michaela Janečková, Irena Lehkoživová Photography: Markéta Mráčková, Martin Stoss, Barbora Šimonová Format: 141 pages, soft cover Size: 17 x 24 cm Publisher: cosa.cz, cultural cooperative Year of publication: 2020 Printed by Havlíčkův Brod ISBN 978-80-270-8958-1
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