The “Cabbage Walk” was a piece of performance art devised by Chinese artist Han Bing as part of the Manchester Triennial Asian arts Festival, which is taking part at all the galleries in Manchester at the moment.
Mike, Peter-john and Peter went along on the walk to represent “Out in the City”. Everyone taking part – who ranged in age from toddlers to a couple even older than us!!! - walked with him around the city pulling a cabbage on a dog lead.
What on earth was it all about?
Performance art is all about involving people, making them think and ask questions.
Han Bing’s basic ideas were:-
- Cabbage is the staple food of China, which is just about all that a large sector of the Chinese population can afford to eat. But, much like in the West, there is now a huge and ever expanding culture of wealthy people who can afford to throw food away, or use it for luxuries such as food for pets – hence the use of a dog’s lead (sorry dog lovers, but it was only a symbol). It also celebrated the fact that we are able to walk around demonstrating freely (not difficult to imagine many parts of the world where it wouldn’t be allowed!)
I suppose there were some spectators on the fringes who had a good snigger at the whole idea. Some may have even thought we were raving lunatics! Mike actually met two older women who told him it was rubbish and a “….waste of cabbages”. But for most of us, the people we spoke to along the way were prepared to listen and talk and were all very positive.
The group of participants was friendly and humorous, so all in all it proved to be a hugely enjoyable experience which restored our faith in human nature. How often can you say that?
This was such an interesting adventure! Everybody who took part seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience! The rapport we managed to create with the vast majority of people was really positive and I think we learned a great deal about ourselves as well as our fellow ‘cabbage walkers’ and everyone we met!