Four channel digital video , color, sound
Video 1: 6min 27sec
Video 2: 7min 44sec
Video 3: 9min 33sec
Video 4: 8min 52sec
Original Format: HD 1080P25, 16:9 , 1440 x 1080
2014
1, This is a disposable lighter made in 1990s, 7cm in length, 2cm in width and 1cm in height, with a bikini woman and a Lamborghini printed on its orange plastic outer case. One 60s born friend recalled that when he first knew this kind of plastic lighters in 90s, he found that the bikini woman on the lighter became immediately naked when being closed to heat that is no higher than 40 degrees.
2, During a conversation with a friend (CHEN Zhou), he took out a plastic lighter and discussed with me why there was such an ad saying “IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE WE COULD FIT SO MANY GREAT IDERS INTO BOMETHING BO THIN” on a lighter with a logo of apple.
3, Some lighters are serving as business cards with the name and address of places like hotels, bathing centres, garages and karaokes.
4, It is expected to find disposable lights wherever we go. They could be in red, green, blue, yellow or black.
5, The national lighter production bases are located in places like Ningbo, Wenzhou and Xiayi. Among them, Xiayi County of Shangqiu City in Henan Province has already become the largest one in China, which receiving the title of “China Lighter Production Base”. There are 276 companies producing lighters or the accessories, among which two enjoy the annual sale over 500 million, offering jobs for a population of 116 thousand, producing 6.5 billions lighters per year, with 2.6 billions for exportation. (from an online statistical table provide by “China Hardware Association”, 2011)
Due to the low price and usefulness, and also the function of “storing” fire，disposable lighter is not only a necessity for daily life, but also a kind of remnant to some extent. The manufacturers print popular images onto the lighters at their will, offering a violent definition of popular aesthetics. These images have been over circulated, flooded into every cracks of our daily life and pushed us to get used to them.
When first learning about the rising of the lighter industry in Xiayi County – brick houses were transformed into temporary factories, local residents changed to factory workers – out of the curiosity of searching the root of these images on the lighters, I decided to visit Huiting Town in Xiayi County as a client who wanted to order commissioned lighters. During that trip, I found Wangzhongwang Plastic, Ltd., a lighter factory with 10 years history. I commissioned some lighters there and filmed how a lighter has been produced.
