Everyone involved in the Nine Rivers Distillery project is taking turns to introduce themselves to the world. Finally it’s my time to shine and tell you all a little about me and how I got involved in this project, and also to tell the world that simply, the days of artists and Absinthe are long gone – artists actually prefer whisky!
Why have we artists switched to whisky? Perhaps it’s the fact that whisky is such a broad and diverse category of drink. Perhaps it’s because we can relate to the creativity needed to craft what are essentially very basic things (grains, water and yeast) into something rich and meaningful. Then again, perhaps it’s simply because in the modern world, artists have generally agreed that we’re less likely to hack off our own ear if we avoid absinthe to fuel our creative passions. All I know is that whisky is something I really enjoy and I’m squeamish at the sight of blood!
I’m Yusan and I’m an artist. Not one of those fluffy types that finger paint blotches on canvas and then challenge people to “see the feelings I’m demonstrating with my art” and then cursing those that don’t have enough of a fluffy imagination to make up some nonsense to sound “artsy”. I actually do a mashup between technology and art, so I’m kind of a half nerd, and only half fluffy. Not even my dog is fluffy. More on her later.
I’ve always been intrigued by art. My interest started when my mom sent me to an art camp (that’s A-R-T and not F-A-T – I only got fat as I got older). She claimed she sent me because she wanted to me to have fun and learn new skills, but I suspect it’s because I was probably too loud and annoying. Regardless, or in spite of her, I had a great time and it laid the foundation for my career which ironically also kinda annoyed my parents (they wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer, or anything else that a traditional Chinese family can brag about). But hey, I’m not unsuccessful! I earn enough to pay my bills and buy whisky, so it’s all working out fine in my humble opinion.
I had a few jobs that were a bit artsy, mostly around video production and art installations, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. As it turns out, most of the production staff or technicians I worked with couldn’t bring my vision to life. Sometimes these disconnects were unspeakably frustrating!
To have an image in your mind of exactly what you want and then the “professionals” not being able to deliver it annoyed me so much that I decided to learn all the nerdy bits myself by going back to university to earn a masters degree that combined technology with art. Now, I’m able to make my own creations become exactly as they should – I’m officially a #Techno-Fluffy (let’s see if we can start a new hashtag trend with that).
Yeah yeah yeah, what about Whisky?
I have two types of whisky in my life. No, not the type with an “e” and the type without an “e”. I mean Whisky, and my ickle bitsy cutie pie Whisky.
The fact that I’ve got a growler named after a type of alcohol should go some way towards demonstrating that I genuinely LOVE whisky. Dog lovers will of course know that this little cutie isn’t the deformed, big eared runt from a litter of Dalmatians, it is of course a French Pug.
She was minutes away from being named after my favourite Islay whisky (that begins with the letter A) but I didn’t want to reinforce that old Western cliché that we Chinese have no respect for copyright or trademarks. So, she became just plain ol’ Whisky.
My first encounter with whisky as a drink was way back in about 2017 when I got dragged along (much to my disinterest at the time) to a Whisky Networking event in Shenzhen. I had seen the address (Maker Hotel) and assumed it would just be full of those yobs who had flown over to Shenzhen, with a wallet full of crowdfunding money to source some new gimmick on the cheap, to sell to gullible punters in the West for 20 times the cost of buying it from a Guangdong factory.
I was more than pleasantly surprised to see that it really wasn’t that type of crowd. In fact, not only was it full of interesting people, but they all had the patience to welcome me as “one of their own” and give me a crash course in whisky. I did a flight of the 5 Scotch regions (yes, I know, there are only actually 4 regions, blah blah blah, but the Speyside lovers will bang their tambourines if I don’t count it as a 5th region….) and ended up leaving the night a little bit tipsy, content in the knowledge that I had fallen in love with heavily peated Islay whiskies (when I got home, I threw the Absinthe in the bin, because I really knew now that artists prefer whisky!). Not at all lady-like (my friends roll their eyes when I order straight-up whisky on girls-night out) but conventional thinking is boring and I’d bet most ladies would actually enjoy a good Islay whisky if they tried it (except my friends).
These whisky networking nights were the only reason I actually went to Shenzhen (I live in Guangzhou) although I didn’t have the time for them once I went back to University. But (because artists prefer whisky), I stayed in touch with most of the people I had met there because I’m a part of some of the whisky groups on WeChat, so I was never far away from it at all.
The idea of the distillery was something discussed at the end of pretty much every whisky night, so when the talking became a something, I was on it like a dog on a bone (or an artist on a bottle of good whisky!). I became one of the founder investors, threw in my money and got my name on the website, proud to be a part of something that is a real passion project for me. Yes, of course it’s an investment, but for me, the investment aspect came second to what I really wanted to do – get involved in creating amazing whiskies with a huge team of people that feel the same as I do.
My Involvement
Currently I have been involved in managing the Nine Rivers Distillery WeChat official account, publishing the content, replying to the people that contact us through our WeChat official account, and I help out on translating content to Chinese. My future plans are to be more involved on the fluffier side, so watch out for my whisky fuelled creative input on some of the art and technology mashups that we have planned. I’m probably not supposed to leak this, but think immersive, augmented reality experiences for visitors…..and then some. There’s a real benefit to a distillery project when artists prefer whisky.
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Artists prefer whisky