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I found that I didn’t need to spend so much time on math and languages, and had more time to spend on art. In addition to art classes, we also have textile classes and a design technology class where I make things out of wood and plastic. In terms of geography, I built a volcano and became pretty good with my hands.
He built a simple, airy 500-square-foot apartment in Hong Kong that “tells a story”
He built a simple, airy 500-square-foot apartment in Hong Kong that “tells a story”
foster children
They had a machine with a hot wire in the middle to cut the polystyrene. Because I’m crafty, they asked me if I could build it in the shape of an apartment building.
No one knew how to use the machine and I was really bad at it the first day. I felt uncomfortable sanding a block of polystyrene loudly in the middle of an open-plan office, but I quickly got the hang of it. They printed technical drawings and taught me how to read them.
They always strive for speed, so all work is done by hand, usually using knives. A colleague calls me the human body 3D printer.
second home
Foster + Partners office is located in Cyberport [on Hong Kong Island] I sometimes work there after school. After a while, they started paying me. That two-week internship turned into a job every summer and Christmas break, well into my college years.
After five years of making models, I learned their software programs and could help in some ways. I worked at Foster + Partners on and off for 14 years until I left two years ago.
A lot of people there have watched me grow up; it feels like a second home.
My mom’s friends have been sending me Christmas gifts and laissez-faire for years and I’m so happy to be able to give something back to them
Nick Cao
Most architects I talk to tell me not to study architecture – that’s the standard response. But I can see them working late not because they have to, but because they love it and believe in it.
It’s a tough road – it takes at least seven years to get a license. It doesn’t have the same money and prestige as other fields like medicine that require a lot of research. You do it because you find it interesting and believe the job is worth it.
Great British Cooking Competition
In 2009, I went to Cambridge University in England to study architecture. It was a small town and I enjoyed the experience of living in that bubble. The lifestyle is a group of friends learning to cook in a dormitory.
We had three eight-week terms and for the rest of the year I worked at Foster + Partners in Hong Kong and used the money to pay for my flights back and forth to the UK.
sleeping at school
I graduated in 2012, and my (Foster + Partners) boss sent me to the Beijing office for an interview. I got the job and signed the contract. I really wanted to go, I wanted to improve my Mandarin and be interested in the culture, but the Beijing government refused my visa. Since this is a professional job, I need a master’s degree.
I worked for a year at Benoy Construction, mainly in retail and shopping centres, before starting a two-year master’s degree.I chose Chinese University [of Hong Kong] I chose the University of Hong Kong because the programs they focused on were more Hong Kong-based, and I wanted to reconnect with Hong Kong culture.
It was difficult for me to make friends in Cantonese during the first few months.Because it’s a long journey from my mother’s home in Repulse Bay to Sha Tin [in the New Territories]I started sleeping on a fold-out bed under the desk in my studio.
Technically it wasn’t allowed, but a few of us did it Monday through Friday and we became friends.
cut it
I bought 50 sheets of red paper from a incense shop in Wan Chai for only HK$2 (US$0.26) each. Most people learn to cut paper with scissors, but in my model making experience it seems more natural to use a cutting mat and use a knife. I drew the outline with a pencil and then cut a stack of 16 sheets of paper with a knife.
Those New Year’s paper-cuttings helped me make friends and made me realize how culturally attractive paper-cutting is to people.
Nick Cao
It has become a tradition for me to set aside some time after Christmas to think about designs for the next zodiac animal.My mom’s friends give me Christmas gifts all the time profit I’ve been happy to give something back to them over the years.
Wuhan prodigy
After graduating with my master’s degree, I joined Foster + Partners full-time. Because they knew me and I had retail experience, they gave me an entire shopping mall in Wuhan, China, to start working on.
cut big apple
In 2016, I won the DFA Young Design Talent Award, which funded me to work overseas for a year. The next year, I got a job with James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architect in New York who designed the city’s High Line.
It was a cold winter when I arrived and I didn’t know many people. The Year of the Dog is coming, so I brought red paper and a cutting knife. I sat at the bar and designed a cutout of a French bulldog. I cut two piles, so I had 32 cuts.
These New Year cutouts have helped me make friends, especially in the Chinese American community. It made me realize how attractive paper cutting is to people on a cultural level.
blue sky thinking
After leaving New York, I returned to Foster + Partners and lived with my mom in Repulse Bay. During the Chinese New Year, I cut paper at home. My mom helped me pack and the delivery took up the entire living room and I made a mess.
In January 2022, I saw on Facebook that someone wanted to move out of the Blue House. [historic tenement building in Wan Chai]. A friend and I decided to pretend we were apartment hunting as an excuse to look around.
Even though I had no plans to move, and the rent for a 600-square-foot (56-square-meter) apartment was out of my budget, the idea was swirling around in my head when I saw it.
I talked to my girlfriend Anne about this. We met six months ago. On our first pandemic date, we went to a gallery in Tsim Sha Tsui and wore masks the entire time.
Annie does marketing work for a jewelry company and is also an influencer on Instagram. After two weeks of deliberation, we moved into the Blue House together.
Make a cut
Unexpectedly, paper-cutting has become a business. Year after year it got bigger and bigger until it was difficult to do at the same time as my full-time job. Now, I work three days a week at Herzog & de Meuron, and the rest of the time I teach paper cutting and discover other business opportunities, such as making souvenirs for businesses.
Every collaboration I do gives me new ideas.
Hong Kong brand
I used to get called Wei Wei Tie (White). I don’t like this label and think I’m not local enough or international enough. This is a cultural identity issue that I and many of my international school friends grapple with.
Their hilarious Cantonese skits make fans around the world laugh
Their hilarious Cantonese skits make fans around the world laugh
I enjoy using my architectural background to contribute to decoupage from a graphic design perspective. Traditionally, in Chinese art, you spend many years copying the works of the masters, and only when you are old and have learned enough can you create something new. Western art, meanwhile, strives to create something new.
I’m doing contemporary paper cuts but trying to have a dialogue with traditional media.
Hong Kong people have always retained the concept of decorating for the New Year, but it has become very commercialized. Why does every store sell the same cute dragon? I don’t even acknowledge them as dragons.
We’re very dependent on the mainland Chinese market, so we don’t have a lot of local decorations, and that’s the gap I want to fill. Many of the puns I used – both the text in the cutout and its title – were in Cantonese, and some were not translated into Mandarin.
What I want to design is not only a Hong Kong brand, but also Hong Kong’s unique culture.
Cao Jiaqiang’s New Year paper-cuts are now on sale at Story House 72A, Stone Shui Canal Lane, Wan Chai. Instagram: @tsaoao.design
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