candy & david's story

Chances are if you are on this website, you have an idea about how David and Candy met making a bike, discovered a world of public sofas in Beijing, and ate their way around the world without leaving Beijing, and everything else! But, if you want a refresher, you can read our story in Chinese and English here!

How we met

In the winter of 2012, David and Candy met at China Youthology working together to research Chinese youth culture throughout China. Candy was one of the founding team members of Youthology which started in 2008, and she was the first person to recieve David's email begging for a job with the Beijing-based market research firm. Candy had already helped Youthology grow China's first youth story sharing platform and published reports on Chinese youth culture, and David was looking to get back to China to keep doing fun research.

A few months later David was settling into the Beijing hutong excited for a new job and new life.


2013 China Youthology

How we started dating:
building a bike

While researching Chinese youth with Candy, David was developing a bit of a crush, so he formulated the ultimate strategy. He asked Candy to restore a bike that he had salvaged. It was a brilliant strategy for required many meetings, lots of time, and plenty of creating. And, over the course of a few months, David and Candy built "Speeder" and were soon a couple.

How we hung out:
Sofa Ethnography

As the weather warmed, David and Candy began taking the company dog, Xiaohei, for walks. On these short walks the two ethnographers made observations of the traditional hutong alleyways. They noticed that the hutong are full of sofas sitting in the street.

Being the researchers they are, they decided to start Sofa Ethnography. They would arrive early before work to go hunt out public sofas and ask their occupants where the sofas came from. Over the course of several months, David and Candy recorded the stories of 20+ sofas with photos, audio, and writing. They published SofaEthno.com and Candy published an e-book about the interviews. Most importantly, they began to make relationships with their neighbors and sofa sitters that made life in the hutong even more fun.

How we explore:
see the small from the big!

David and Candy love to explore new places, ideas, and experiences. In their exploration, they've always taken the 以小见大 perspective, seeing the big through the small.

With this principle in mind, they "ate their way around the world" by starting at a Chinese restaurant in Beijing, then going to a Vietnamese, then going to a Malaysian, until they had eaten their way around the world without leaving Beijing. (The whole "trip" took about 1 year.) Check it out HERE: www.yixiaojianda.com (They still haven't finished documenting all the countries).

They “traveled” to different friends houses, shared and create daily arts to transform each friend’s living room into art museums. Check it out HERE: http://friendslivingroomart.tumblr.com/

Candy and David also travelled to Taiwan to research bamboo for bamboo bicycles. And Candy created her "5-Minute Story Musuem" in which she wrote the stories of the people they met while driving around the island.

Exploring has and continues a favorite activity for David and Candy as they've travelled both near and far.

We move:
The USA

After 4 great years in Beijing in which David and Candy started Bamboo Bicycles Beijing, Candy became a partner at China Youthology, Candy started many community art projects including "Open Zoo" and they moved into a nice apartment together, the couple decided to make a big move to the US.

David entered MIT to pursue an MBA and a Masters in City Planning, and Candy is still working for China Youthology in Beijing and focusing on socially-engaged art projects. While David is trying to figure out how to use MIT's awesome workshops, Candy has been connecting with different communities to introduce her "Open Zoo" project and learn more about how art can impacts different neighborhoods. Check out Candy's work HERE.

q

Our Future?

What does the future hold for David and Candy? Good question.

They don't know everything, but they do know:

  • They will probably move back to China after David's school
  • They really want to get a dog.
  • There will continue to be some bicycles.
  • And they really want to have their own creative space to design and open to a community.