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Qiao Xiaodao: Building a fairytale world for the Chinese people

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2025-01-26

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Author | Anna

Editor-in-chief | Yang Ming

Editor | Jing Xiangyuan

Source | Theme Park World

In a piece of wasteland overgrown with weeds in Shuhe, Lijiang, Qiao Xiaodao, a "former folk singer," built more than 200 strange little houses. Their shapes are bizarre and absurd, full of whimsy, and many parts are made from scrap materials collected from the garbage dump. This is "Wild Country."

Entering Wild Country, people feel like they've stepped into a fairy tale world, or accidentally wandered into a child's dream. This vast and fantastical cluster of houses brings to mind the classic skies, castles, haystacks, strange vehicles, and occasional spirits from Miyazaki Hayao's films. Here, children have fun, adults find healing, and people return to their inner selves and their true nature.

Art Amusement Park

Qiao Xiaodao was once a very popular folk singer, forming the "Da Qiao Xiao Qiao" band in Beijing. After the band disbanded, Qiao Xiaodao and his wife Zhenzhen went to live in Lijiang. Putting down his guitar and picking up a tape measure and chisel, Qiao Xiaodao became a carpenter. From a farmer who only finished junior high school, to a worker, designer, and singer who ventured into Beijing blindly, Qiao Xiaodao, who never studied architecture, after a few years of silence, created the "Wild Country" that has become famous throughout the internet with his own hands.

Each small house in Wild Country is named like a song: A One-Person Art Gallery, Nomadic Wanderer, Wine Tree Wind and Rain, Disappearing Years Poetry Bookstore... Their functions are also diverse, including tree houses, bars, slides, ice cream shops, and acupuncture clinics, forming a self-sufficient little world like a peach blossom land.

In Qiao Xiaodao's mind, singers and designers have something in common: whether it's a song or a house, it needs a name and a theme.

Whether it's music or design, Qiao Xiaodao, this folk artist, has never had what is considered a "professional background." It is precisely this "unprofessionalism" that keeps him free from constraints.

No one in Qiao Xiaodao's team uses CAD for drawing. From a sketch to a house, one person can complete it. No sketches are drawn; it's all conceived in the mind, and the rest is done through focused execution. This is how Qiao Xiaodao, a wild architect without academic training, builds houses. Basically, once he has the shape in his mind, he determines the dimensions, welds the steel frame, covers it with wood, makes the doors and windows, and forms the basic shape. As for what kind of story the house needs to be given later, it is adapted to the situation, improvising and randomly mixing architecture, music, and medicine, integrating life experience, aesthetic sense, and skills.

Qiao Xiaodao explains that his inspiration comes from everywhere, and can be found in any corner, such as the second character on the fifth or sixth line of a randomly opened book, combined with the ninth character on the second line of a randomly opened WeChat message on his phone. In short, inspiration is not something you think about; it happens spontaneously during the process of practice and combination.

In addition, he adheres to a highly unusual standard for recruiting people: those with a junior high school education or above are not wanted; those who can use computers, those who can draw, those who talk a lot, and those who walk slowly are all not wanted. The only requirement is that everyone who joins the team is "versatile," a self-contained special forces unit, proficient in carpentry, welding, water and electricity, and painting. Qiao Xiaodao is well aware of the hardships and dangers of working in the wilderness, so he has established this ironclad rule.

Mental Hospital

Qiao Xiaodao describes it as, "'Wild Country' is like a 'mental hospital,' there are no doctors here, and no one prescribes medicine for you, but you can get a moment of healing when you come here."

"My childhood wasn't happy; people of our generation basically wouldn't say the word 'love.' I was very withdrawn and very inferior, but these childhood memories planted the seeds of diligence and optimism in me, making me determined to leave my hometown and go to the city to study. My good childhood memories were all kinds of labor, building bird nests, climbing trees, guarding secret bases."

"All my creations are a replication of my childhood," says Qiao Xiaodao. For example, he added the "windows" he often used to escape school when he was a child to the small houses. He also built Wild Country into a "小人国 (small country/ Lilliput)", building the houses and cars small according to children's height, so that it can satisfy children's playfulness and bring adults back to their childhood memories. These rough, handmade houses are the best way to bring people "back to their true selves."

The only time in a person's life when they believe in fairy tales is the happiest time, and after that, they live more and more by the rules. Almost everyone encounters various unhappiness in middle age, so how do you cure yourself? At this time, you need "fairy tales" to come back and adjust your inner conflicts and contradictions, returning to your true self. To this end, Qiao Xiaodao decided to target "adults" as the key customers to be cheered up in Wild Country, allowing them to return to a carefree state, resonating, healing, and rejoicing.

Today's generation of children who have entered middle age do not have a so-called childhood dream kingdom; at most, they are stuck in cartoons, and there is no specific toy IP image. This is a problem of generational growth; economic development has neglected children's spiritual assets. Now Qiao Xiaodao looks forward to seeing more and more Chinese designers entering the "fairy tale" theme camp. "It will take at least another generation's joint efforts to have a fairy tale world that belongs to us Chinese."

From "Selfish" to Selfless

Wild Country began with Qiao Xiaodao's desire to make up for his childhood deficiencies and adjust his inner depression and entanglement, as well as to give his daughter a happy childhood. After the "selfish" Wild Country was built and after a period of operation, many people liked the small houses in Wild Country, and there were many people who resonated with it.

▲Qiao Xiaodao and his daughter Qiao Huahua

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A family of tourists from Xi'an spent seven out of their ten days in Lijiang at this place. During that time, they saw Qiao Xiaodao's team building new cars every day as soon as they entered the park. On their last day, Qiao Xiaodao waived their entrance fee and hesitantly asked if they were tired of coming every day and might not come again. They received very positive and encouraging feedback: "Every day, we see something different; there's always new content in the Wilderness Kingdom."

Another tourist from Shenzhen was reported by other tourists for locking herself in the poetry bookstore for too long. Later, Qiao Xiaodao met her through this incident. She told him she had depression, and that the scene and atmosphere of the small house were so healing that she cried for several hours alone, releasing the pressure she had been feeling recently.

Qiao Xiaodao hopes this place can become everyone's Wilderness Kingdom, so he has a new plan: to find 100 interesting people and give them houses. He will only be responsible for the exterior design and construction of the houses; the house names and interior space usage will be decided by the person themselves, based on their own stories. These 100 people will become the "Honorary Kings" of the Wilderness Kingdom.

▲Wilderness Kingdom | Honorary Kings

Zhang Quan, lead singer of Yehaizi; Chen Hongyu, emerging folk musician

Collaborative Creation

In 2019, the Chengdu Luhu Culture and Tourism team went to the Lijiang Wilderness Kingdom for team building and happened to discuss their "feat" of pioneering and developing land in the south of Chengdu—creating an ideal city within a city. Their similar values attracted each other.

So, on the central island of Luhu, Qiao Xiaodao spent about three years creating the Luhu version of the "Wilderness Kingdom." The Luhu environment is completely different from the original habitat. The "wilderness" aspect is one of the sources of charm for the "Wilderness Kingdom." Because the sense of seclusion was lost due to the proximity to the city, Qiao Xiaodao chose a more exaggerated expression to maintain the spiritual attributes. But the core is to use pure creativity to realistically portray people's dreams and touch the deepest desires in their hearts: no matter what reality is like, we can still retain a piece of the purest private land.

▲Luhu Wilderness Kingdom

The "Wilderness Art Festival," a collaboration between Luhu Culture and Tourism and Qiao Xiaodao's "Wilderness Kingdom" during the May Day holiday in 2023, was different from other marketing festivals. It not only brought together various art forms such as installations, sculptures, poetry, painting, drama, music, dance, and film, but many artists and brands also created secondary works on various buildings and installations.

Qiao Xiaodao is a starting point; "co-creation" has no boundaries. In Luhu Culture and Tourism's plan, such secondary and even primary creations will be opened up to more people. In addition to the houses created by celebrities who participated in the variety show with Qiao Xiaodao, which will be gradually presented in the Luhu "Wilderness Kingdom," architects, artists, musicians, and ordinary people from all walks of life will be invited to build their own small houses, encouraging everyone to spontaneously come and protect the "Wilderness Kingdom," igniting the flame of dreams and light within people's hearts.

In July of this year, Qiao Xiaodao will organize a grand art torch festival at the Lijiang Wilderness Kingdom. The art torch festival will be a return—a collective return to the earth, to the wilderness, to the original creative desires and impulses, and to the authenticity and freedom of creation for art lovers.

Here, people form a free, collaborative art tribe, jointly building thoughts and creations unique to this era.

▲Qiao Xiaodao, who once participated in the Burning Man festival with his installation art

Reference Articles:

China Civil Aviation: "Interview with Qiao Xiaodao | In the Wilderness Kingdom, Every Child Is Your Past Self"

NYLON: "Wilderness Kingdom: A Neverland of Childlike Innocence"

Sensitive City SCity: Luhu Culture and Tourism: "Wilderness" Kingdom, Dream-Making in the City

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