ARCH 662 Thesis 8

Living with Bamboo

Xuetong Zhai
El Hadi Jazairy
China’s rapid, rampant development over the past decades has destroyed the connection between humans and nature. This connection, which is the past and future of Chinese identity and defined what it is meant to be Chinese, can only be found in the countryside now. By focusing on a specific minority group in China, Jinuo, I dig into its special relationship with bamboo, which had deeply embedded in their culture and daily life. Bamboo is a sustainable material with great potential in the future that could use as a surprisingly effective carbon sink. The bond between bamboo and Jinuo people, however,…