CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Wednesday, March 18, 2020 | 17 YOUTH The glimmer of hope
Fang Longhuizi is looking to renew the luster of lockeddown Wuhan, and lift the spirits of its people, by posting drawings of her extravagant jewelry designs online, all of which are inspired by the city’s signature elements from architecture to breakfast food, Chen Nan reports.
ang Longhuizi first arrived in the provincial capital of Central China’s Hubei prov ince eight years ago as a Ffreshman of the Gemmological Institute at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan. The city is about 600 kilometers away from her hometown, Yangzhou, East China’s Jiangsu province. The stark contrast of the two cities, in terms of the tem perature, food and culture, didn’t Bai Rui works in her lab at Westlake University in Hangzhou, stop her falling in love with Wuhan Zhejiang province. She’s the third person in China as an and, as a jewelry designer, she “international rising talent” to receive UNESCO’s Women in soaked up the atmosphere. Science award on March 12. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Because of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan went into lock down on Jan 23. On the same day, Fang was due to travel back to Exacting criteria Yangzhou to celebrate Spring Festival with her family. She could have left the city that day for her hometown, but she chose, like many other people paves a scientist’s who had to change their schedules for the Lunar New Year, to stay in the city with her husband. “There were many different emo road to success tions emerging around about the outbreak, especially negative ones, such as fear, isolation and anger,” By ZHOU WENTING in Shanghai include not chatting and wearing says Fang, 26, a teacher at the uni [email protected] earphones during lab experi versity, where she obtained her ments. bachelor and master’s degrees in Bai Rui, a postdoctorate stu “Although all the researchers jewelry design. “I felt very sad and I dent in life science at Westlake understand that 99 percent of lab realized how much I love the city University in Hangzhou, Zhejiang experiments will lead to nothing, and how much I miss the beautiful province became only the third I firmly believe that the people things about it.” person in China to receive UNES factor plays a vital role in how an To demonstrate her love for the CO’s International Rising Talents experiment will turn out,” she city, Fang has released a set of draw for Women in Science award on says. ings, titled This Is Wuhan, mostly March 12. Before commencing an experi designs of necklaces, showing the The secret to success, she says, ment, Bai would spend time read place as a city of colorful culture, is down to the very precise set of ing the relevant papers and with layers of geographic, historic standards she has given herself. materials about the research and and artistic connotations. From the angles at which to place be thoroughly prepared for One Feb 21, she released the first her instruments when adding potential accidents. nine pictures on microblogging reagents, to the placement of test The fact that she has always platform Sina Weibo, which were tubes, to how her eyes trace the sported short hair since her widely shared by other users. The movement of the fluids in each childhood is another hint of her city’s iconic landmarks, such as the sample, every detail, as insignifi highly pragmatic nature. Bai has Yellow Crane Tower and the Yangtze cant as it might seem, is taken also never worn a dress unless River Bridge, and its tourist attrac into consideration. necessary, such as during formal tions, including metasequoia trees When asked about the necessi occasions. and cherry blossoms, have all ty of her exacting standards for become Fang’s inspiration for her lab tests, Bai explains that they design. are in place so that she will never “I love the way the designer por be confused about whether she Although all the trays the city,” commented a fan has added reagents before. researchers under her post. “As a Wuhan native, “It’s quite repetitive to add rea I cannot wait to walk on the crowd gents in a lab experiment. But if I understand that 99 ed streets again and taste the local have strict rules for myself, I’ll be percent of lab food after the outbreak ends.” Clockwise from above: way surrounded by trees planted on very clear of the steps even if I’m Another user wrote: “Every year I Jewelry designer Fang the lakeside, its connecting islands, disrupted in the middle of an experiments will go to Wuhan University to enjoy Longhuizi is a teacher at lakeside parks and nearby small experiment,” she says. lead to nothing, I the view of the cherry blossoms. the China University of ponds. It is also the place where The 27yearold, who was one Spring has arrived and the cherry Geosciences in Wuhan. Fang and her husband once went of the 15 winners of this year’s firmly believe that blossoms again. Everything will be Some of the new set’s on dates and got married. award, has been researching the the people factor fine.” drawings, inspired by the In the design, Fang delicately por structure and mechanism of Each of the drawings took Fang Yellow Crane Tower, the trayed the ripples of the lake and the RNA spliceosome since 2014, plays a vital role in about four hours to finish, and she Yangtze River Bridge, tranquillity of the place. when she became a graduate stu how an experiment says she didn’t expect all of the the plain, the provincial “The first thing I want to do dent at Tsinghua University in attention they are getting online, museum, the guqin when the outbreak ends is to walk Beijing. will turn out.” but she is happy that, as a result, terrace, metasequoia along the Donghu Lake. I miss the Spliceosome is a huge and com Bai Rui, postdoctorate stu some companies have contacted trees and her college. gentle breeze brushing my face,” plex molecule machine found in dent in life science at West her, hoping to turn her designs into PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY she says. eukaryotic nuclei. lake University in Hangzhou reality. Fang has also integrated elements Her attempts to perform patho Fang saw a silver lining in the cur of the local food into her jewelry genesis of spliceosomerelated Having her mother as one of rent, challenging situation. designs, with a piece called Guozao. diseases at the molecular level the teachers in the primary school “It allowed me to reflect and look It allowed me to In the local dialect, guozao means may provide academic insights that she went to could have possi at the city I’m living in thoroughly “having breakfast”. into potential drug development, bly shaped her into the individual and with more depth,” she says. reflect and look “When I first arrived in Wuhan, I she explains. she is today, according to Bai, as “Together, we opened a space for at the city I’m noticed that guozao is very impor “Understanding the process of teachers’ children were always compassion and a space to love, tant for local people. There are vari spliceosome is really important as expected to do better than others when bad things happened to the living in ous breakfast foods and my favorite previous studies have shown that in class. city.” thoroughly and is a bowl of the signature hotdry 35 percent of genetic disorders Other factors that have contrib The inspiration for her designs noodles,” she explains. are related to a malfunction in the uted to her success today include came from her daily life in Wuhan with more depth. “Now, the city is empty. Places, process,” says Bai, a native of the her being an avid reader since during the past eight years. She has Together, we which used to be crowded, are very Inner Mongolia autonomous childhood. finished 15 drawings in this series, quiet, but it will get better.” region. “I would wonder what’s out and is now working on a new set opened a space For Fang, her passion for jewelry During her PhD studies, Bai has there above the skies and why that was inspired by youth culture for compassion design started in high school. Her published five papers in the jour plants are different in different in the city. mother, an art lover who teaches in a nal Science and three in Cell, all of seasons, so I looked for the For one piece among her current and a space to kindergarten in Yangzhou, intro which have been cited more than answers in astronomy and biolo series, Fang was inspired by Hubei love, when bad duced Fang to painting, calligraphy 600 times in total. Bai, who spent gy books,” she says. Provincial Museum, which was things happened and music, when Fang was a toddler. only four years to earn her PhD Despite her love for books, she established in 1953 as one of the “I first learned about the major degree — a year and a half shorter always found time for school eight major museums in China and to the city.” in jewelry design from a student of than usual — was also the recipi activities and even sports, having is located near her home. She incor my art teacher in high school. She ent of a toptier scholarship at been on the college basketball Fang Longhuizi, jewelry porates the design of its architec designer; college teacher was a student at the Gemmological Tsinghua University in 2018. team during her undergraduate ture, such as the gray blue ceiling Institute of the China University of Her passion for this field, she studies at Wuhan University in tiles on the roof of the museum, into Geosciences,” recalls Fang. says, lies in her reverence for Central China’s Hubei province. her jewelry drawings. The depiction “When she presented her jewelry nature. She says that she is often Bai encourages more women to of the famous Sword of Goujian, a drawings to us, I was instantly moved when witnessing through become life science researchers, bronze sword excavated from a hooked, and decided to study the a microscope how living orga saying that there is no glass ceil tomb in Hubei’s Jingzhou, with a same major as her.” nisms interact with one another. ing in the field of life science. history of more than 2,000 years, Before she started teaching at the “It is through this role that I “I have witnessed several of my provides the centerpiece of her university in March 2019, Fang have learned how some substan female peers discontinue their drawing. worked for a jewelry company in ces, as insignificant as they might research and switch to an easier Another design, titled Donghu Shenzhen, Guangdong province, seem, actually play a vital role in job after getting married and hav Lake, a beautiful landmark lake in which enabled her to gain the expe performing regulatory functions ing children because of family the east part of the city, is her favor rience of turning drawings into real within a plant, animal or human and societal pressure,” Bai says. ite. It’s one she holds dear for per pieces. body. Everything in our bodies is “That won’t be the case for me. I sonal reasons. The lake is a popular connected,” she says. want to follow my heart and live scenic spot among tourists and Contact the writer at Some of the other rules that she the life I want. I will not stop my locals, with its 102kilometer green [email protected] has set for herself and her fellows independent research.”