狂野西部: It's a Little Horsey
meet QQ horse and QQ snake
This is Yun Hai Taiwan Stories, a newsletter about Taiwanese food and culture by Lisa Cheng Smith 鄭衍莉, founder of Yun Hai. If you aren’t yet a subscriber, sign up here.
Happy Lantern Festival! I’m so happy to announce that our Lunar New Year QQ Merch is ready for preorder, shipping late March. QQ Horse, this year’s zodiac animal, is done up in a Western wear-style, inspired by early cinema and my hometown of Houston. I’ve also included QQ Snake in complementary khaki, to make up for last year and not leave you snakies in the lurch. Though snakes may prefer lurches.
A quick word about merch, too. If you’re willing to wear it, merch is a wonderful way to show your support for small brands! It’s one item that we can make domestically (tariff-free), on relatively short notice (great cash conversion cycle), helps fund upcoming projects (noodles), and spreads the word about our brand (depending on how much you wear it). No pressure at all, but thought it would be nice to share that perspective, as you encounter other small brands making cool stuff.
And now, onto the introductions.
**Please note the QQ Merch is preorder only and will ship late March. Preorder items cannot be purchased with other products—they must be in a separate cart.**
Every Lunar New Year (more on that later), I draw a mascot to embody the zodiac changeover and set my intentions through the development of a character. They’ve ranged from a lovely little ox to a beckoning dragon.
The only requirement for this line of zodiac merch is that the animals have the letters “QQ” as eyes. This is inspired by the Taiwanese phrase “Q” (diminutive “QQ”), which is a term used to describe the perfect bouncy texture for everything from bawan to boba.
I also have a long standing love affair with this letter combination, because of its usage in early internet marketplaces, as in ebay, as in Leica 280mm f:4.8 Telyt lens, late style, US SELLER ”LQQK“.
Usually, we silkscreen our QQ zodiac mascots on a shirt, but this year we went for embroidery. Looking for a t-shirt? We’ve still got Hu Ye Tiger god shirts, too. Scroll on.
Introducing QQ Horse
This year’s mascot comes to you by way of my past.
When I was in kindergarten, I was given the assignment of coloring in a horse. I gave mine a brown coat and a black mane, carefully rendered. Satisfied, I looked over at my neighbor, who had dressed hers in multicolor, a shiny princess. I ripped mine up and made a copy of hers, and never forgot the sense of regret I felt afterwards.
QQ Horse is Kindergarten Horse risen again, shining in postponed glory, adorned only by a pair of glittering, golden glasses. (I happen to be severely myopic and this is also a nod to that whole thing.) She’s embroidered onto a denim shirt, symmetrically mirrored across the centerline, inspired by Western wear and my deep Texan-Taiwanese roots.
I also have to admit that back when I was a design director at Areaware (sadly closing this year after a long, wonderful run), I’d often call things “a little horsey” to indicate they were a bit awkward and not ready for primetime. The irony of this does not escape me. Thanks to my friend Michael Hunter at Le Puzz for endearingly pointing this out ha ha.
But more than anything, this year’s horse is an invitation to run, bespectacled with clarity, into the future.
I struggled to draw QQ Horse this year (I struggle every year), and tried to avoid the barbie horse tropes of big hair and plastic-like body. As I worked, I thought of Eadweard Muybridge, who birthed a form of early cinema when trying to understand the mechanics of the horse’s movement. He set up a series of cameras with tripwire shutters and captured a horse at a gallop.
The work, or series of works, is titled The Horse in Motion. People used to believe that the horse flew over the land with legs splayed in front and behind them (aka the flying gallop). Muybridge showed that yes, the horse does separate completely from the ground, but only with legs tucked awkwardly and expertly beneath. I tried to capture this moment of suspension, a moment of forward motion divorced from earthly matters. And a moment that spearheaded the development of cinema.
LQQK:
Meet QQ Snake
Last year, I failed to complete the QQ Snake assignment, for reasons only partially explained. So, like QQ Horse, QQ Snake rises, summoned into existence by my completionist heart.
In trying to draw a snake, retroactively, I kept coming into forms that felt defensive (ready to strike), exoticized (sumptuously coiled), or politicized (god forbid I accidentally make a don’t tread on me flag). I looked into Muybridge again, and found that he had also studied the motion of the serpent. Unlike the yang horse, the yin snake is hard to read, a bit arbitrary in its position, and doesn’t seem to have a need to go anywhere at all.
I took from it that a snake was a line in space. Wherever its head has gone, so too its tail. I had a thought about the continuous relationship between past and present, as I drew the zodiac animal in the very end of the snake year. And I thought about how transformation need not be directional, but creeping.
I wondered what I might do with a line, and, very directly, I hid a Y and an H into QQ Snake’s body, representing Yun Hai. I started with the tail, and curved around the letter forms into the head. I added two wide open bright eyes, your standard forked tongue, and two nostrils, in homage to my sister’s hognose snake named Agnut. Finally, I added a segmented belly, to give it a little tread (on me).
Last year’s snake has motion, it starts at the tail and moves towards the head, which brings us just about to the present, ready to shed skin and transform.
LQQK:
QQ Merch
We put QQ Horse and QQ Snake on a new series, internally dubbed Zodiac Workwear, Practical Attire for Any Situation.™ The horse, fittingly, is emblazoned onto denim, and the snake onto khaki.
The workwear collection is now available for preorder, shipping late March. Preorder items cannot be purchased with other products—they must be in a separate cart.
I love a good oversized workshirt—I have at least 25 in my closet, either inherited from my dad or picked up at a thrift store in the image of him. I love to wear a size L and roll the sleeves up. It’s my uniform. Mirror selfie for fit reference, I’m 5’4.”
Also included are ball caps and kids’ safari hats, to round out the collection and keep things sporty.
We’ve worked closely with our partners at General Wear, Inc. (my new fave embroidery shop in NYC) to produce this “spec”tacular line. I made many prototypes, carefully specified the blank stock, annoyed the sh- out of everyone, and postponed this at least once to get it just right.
These are in production and will be embroidered in New York City, just a few miles away from our shop.
QQ Merch
Here’s a quick “roundup” of the whole line. How many more cowboy puns will be used in this newsletter? Lariat’s wait and see.
Work Shirt
These button-down work shirts have a 90s cut. Two zodiac animals are mirrored across the centerline, embroidered on the yoke of the garment, channeling a western wear aesthetic and calling back to Lisa Cheng Smith’s Texas roots, an important hotbed of Taiwanese activism back in the day!
QQ Horse: Long Sleeve Denim Shirt
100% cotton, 7 oz.
QQ Snake: Long Sleeve Twill Shirt
100% cotton, 5 oz.
Features:
Double-needle stitching throughout
Button-down collar
Left chest pocket
Rounded adjustable cuffs
4” wide QQ Zodiac embroidery on front left and right chest
1.75” wide Yun Hai logo embroidery on front pocket
Baseball Cap
These five panel baseball caps have an adjustable slider and fit even the largest of heads, as verified on said girl’s trip. They’re adorned with a zodiac animal on the front and a Yun Hai logo on the back.
QQ Horse: Light Blue Denim Newhattan Baseball Cap
QQ Snake: Stonewashed Khaki Newhattan Baseball Cap
100% cotton
Features:
3” wide QQ Zodiac embroidery on front
1.75” wide Yun Hai logo embroidery on back
Sliding buckle
Kids’ Safari Hat
These kids’ safari hats are just what’s needed on an adventure. They’ve got venting grommets up top, buttons on the side to flip up the brim, and an adjustable neck strap. They’re adorned with a zodiac animal on the front and a Yun Hai logo on the back.
QQ Horse: Sky Blue Newhattan Safari Hat
QQ Snake: Khaki Newhattan Safari Hat
Around 55 cm circumference.
100% cotton
Features:
3” wide QQ Zodiac embroidery on front
1.75” wide Yun Hai logo embroidery on back
Yee Haw
Not much more to say, but I’ve “corralled” a few links for ya:
Our Ai Yu Jelly Kit and Sesame Peanut Paste are on quick sale! We bought too many! Help us out and pick up a few units here.
It’s Lantern Festival, and that means it’s time for tang yuan. We’ve got some in the frozen section of the shop. Or, check out the last episode of Cooking With Steam to make some with me and my friend Jess.
If you’re in the mood for something Taiwanese with a Texas flair, check out our collection of fermented chili sauces by our friends at Empress Hot Sauce. I’d recommend Ghost Pepper Maqaw for a real kick.
Photo by Heami Lee.
And now, for my next act: how to combine a run bing and a burrito. Just kidding, run bing all the way. Or maybe flautas. I don’t know.
A little horsey,
Lisa Cheng Smith 鄭衍莉
Written with editorial support by Amalissa Uytingco, Jasmine Huang, Grace Jung, and Natya Regensburger. If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with friends and subscribe if you haven’t already. I email once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. For more Taiwanese food, head to yunhai.shop, follow us on instagram and twitter, or view the newsletter archives.