A Belt
Round the belt is a zipper, two zippers, and three zippers. Freeing both of the hands. Controlling the density inside and the weight outside. The cold chain imprisons spirit. The length is happiness, longer is better.
The Military belt
When I was in primary school, I used to live with my grandparents. My grandpa was a soldier, but I rarely see anything relate to troops, except for a photo of both my grandparents in the military uniform and a belt that hung on the wall. My grandpa looked very genial and he cooked really well, unlike the impression I had for soldiers that they were very serious, so I often wonder if my grandpa was really a soldier or a chef. Once I asked him this question, then he showed me a combo of military boxing right away. I told him that we learned the same thing in our P.E class. He just gave me that typical smile and told me to do my homework. I assume that I was right, he probably was not a soldier. After dinner, I went to talk to my grandma, and I told her that I found my grandpa’s secret. My grandma said that there were many secrets about grandpa which one did I find out? I was really excited and told her that I did know my grandpa was not a soldier. Then she asked me didn’t I see the military belt in the room. I told her that might be fake because it looked very new. Then she laughed and told me the story behind the belt.
When my grandpa was young, he was willing to be a soldier because they were at a time period of China’s reform and opening-up, and that was the time of promoting patriotism all over the country, so young people were so into protecting the motherland. My grandma told me that my grandpa studied very hard to get into military school, and that was where they met, and they decided that they would get married once they graduate from school. The government guaranteed job allocation for graduates, my grandpa was very lucky that he was assigned to the artillery battalion which he always wanted and my grandma stayed at the school for teaching. Everything seemed going well until they started planning the wedding. The first thing they needed to do was to report to the higher authorities in the troops, but this time, the news was not what they expected. The leader in the troop announced that in order to allow them to get married, my grandpa needed to move out of the artillery department to a local defense department which was like supervise the weapons. My grandma said she could wait for him because she knew that how much effort my grandpa made to be where he was, but my grandpa agreed to the troop’s require without telling my grandma, and the only thing he could keep from the artillery battalion was that military belt. I felt great pity for my grandpa that he gave up his dream, but on the other hand, I admired his courage for making this the decision. No wonder my grandma said my grandpa had kept so many secrets and no wonder my grandpa didn’t really want to explain anything about my doubt. The belt represented his youth and his dream, he was a true soldier. A soldier who protected his country and his family.
Personal Reflection
After the two writings, I felt like it was kind of interesting about using language in a nonsense way that different people would interpret in different ways. Because instead of describing an object straightforwardly, people need to think more and to process in their mind, so while I was writing the first one, I chose the object that I made for studio class which was a black chain belt. I tried to make it seems more nonsense, so I described it subjectively, and I kind of describe it from the appearance at first and then to its function. It was fun about writing something that people need to guess what it is and to redefine an object from a new perspective. For the studio class, I transformed the military belt into a black chain belt which represents my perspective of viewing the military belt and also it showed my own interpretation of the object visually. I think it is easier for people to get the idea of the object visually than through writing because it’s easier for people to search in their memory for what looks similar than a combination of nonsense sentences, but both of the writing and the object I created are relevant of showing a new “realistic” perspective of something.
