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Wild Fairy and Nature's Gift, Travel Thousands of
浏览次数:803次 更新时间:2022-02-23

by Xinyi Yang





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Adam Shi

The promoter of Chinese Incense Culture in Singapore

Managing Director of WEN WU (SINGAPORE) GALLERY

Managing Director of ZHENHUA RESTORATION CENTRE in Singapore

Managing Director of H&H BROTHER AUCTION HOUSE in Singapore

Technical Advisor of S&Z INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT PTD LTD in Singapore


Mr. Adam Shi is a restorer of ancient paintings and calligraphy. He loves traditional Chinese culture deeply and loves collecting Chinese paintings and calligraphy. He is very influential in the local. 

 Due to Singapore's geographical environment and climate, paintings and calligraphies are prone to have mold and staining, resulting in severe damage to expensive paintings and calligraphies, which causes enormous losses to collectors. Some collectors even discard the broken collection when they have no hope to seek help. When each damaged work is miraculously restored through his hands, it leaves every collector in awe.

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(史磊先生在修復書畫)

 

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Outside of work, Mr. Adam Shi is also an outdoor sports enthusiast who enjoys outdoor sports such as wild hunting, fishing, and running.

 

Outdoor sports brought him and incense together.

In June 2005, he and a group of friends who love outdoor sports went fishing and snorkeling in Langkawi Island, Malaysia. He saw a black and somewhat rotten wood in a club's showroom when they were resting on land, and an intense aroma came from it. Later, he learned that it was a piece of agarwood weighing more than 10 kilograms and worth millions dollars. For the first time in his lifetime, he saw such an expensive ROTTEN wood. Since then, he has formed an inseparable bond with agarwood. There are rich natural resources of wild agarwood in the primitive tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia; Adam Shi has traveled all over Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei, to find agarwood in each incense zone. Sometimes to find a piece of top-quality agarwood, he had to transfer planes three times and then take the bus for eight to nine hours to reach his destination, which was quite an exhausting process. He went to many places such as China's Fujian and Taiwan, and Japan in the following years to study, communicate, and promote Chinese incense culture.

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 (史磊先生在印尼野外尋香)

 

Outdoor sports brought him and her together.

Outdoor sports not only bonded him with agarwood but also allowed him to harvest love. 

In October 2015, it was a beautiful autumn day in Beijing, and Mr. Adam Shi was invited to come to Beijing to teach Chinese incense culture and lecture on the knowledge of agarwood. He met so many friends who love Chinese incense culture and outdoor sports here. One day, he agreed to go running at the foot of the Great Wall with some friends, and one of them brought a friend along called Xiaoqing. In the end, the girl who loves outdoor sports and joined them at the last minute became Mr. Adam Shi's wife.


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 (史磊先生和他的妻子小清)

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(史磊先生和他的妻子小清在歐洲)

 

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(史磊先生和他的妻子小清在非洲沙漠)

 

In this issue, the editor has an exclusive interview with Mr. Adam Shi face to face.

 

Editor:

  What kind of incense is agarwood, and what is the difference between it and other incense? How is it generated? 

 

Adam Shi:

The Chinese discovered incense a long time ago and have used it ever since. Since the Neolithic period, Chinese mugwort, sandalwood, and other uniquely scented grasses and woods have been burned to perform rituals, used as emotional substances, and used to smoke clothes to repel insects. Agarwood is the most expensive and miraculous incense among them all, and it has been considered the top incense ever since ancient times. People often say the top four incense are agarwood, sandalwood, ambergris, and musk. Agarwood refers to the incense woods that will sink into the water after many years of changing. The first record of the Chinese ancestors using agarwood in words was over two thousand years old, which is why the empires and literati of all generations were proud of being able to use agarwood. Unlike sandalwood, which can be taken directly from a type of wood, or frankincense, which can be taken directly from a kind of resin, agarwood is a solid cohesion that mixes gum, resin, volatile oil, wood other components, with varying volumes and shapes. The plants that can form agarwood are mainly several incense trees in the Aquilaria genus of the Thymelaeaceae family, but the wood of these incense trees does not have a distinct aroma. When these incense woods, such as the woods of Aquilaria Sinensis, are injured or infected by germs, they secrete a kind of paste-like lumps, and after the wood fibers decay, the scented balsam left behind is agarwood.

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Editor:

 Although agarwood culture originates from nature, the application scenario is indoor. Outdoor activity(seeking incense) is "outgoing" and "active," while burning incense indoor is "elegant" and "quiet," how do you see these two cultures?

Adam Shi

One of these two cultures is "quiet," and one is "active"; one is "cultivating character," and one is "cultivating the body." In my understanding, we need to cultivate both inside and outside to reach the unity of heaven and man and live in harmony with nature.

 

Editor:

What are the uses and humanistic values of agarwood?

Adam Shi:

Western perfumers use it in the formulation and manufacture of perfumes. In Arabic countries, the upper class would use agarwood to smoke the body and clothes. In China, people use it in more scenarios. We use it in medicine; in addition to its tranquilizing effect, it also can uplift the mood. We also use it to find the path of spiritual enlightenment, and ordinary people also use it to worship gods and ancestors.

The outlook of agarwood is inconspicuous without radiant aurora and clear texture. Some of them look like bark, while others look like withered branches, but they are the fairy created by the changes of nature. Agarwood's smell is soft yet hard, flexible yet powerful. The scent is not strong but soft and penetrating. Without injuries or illness, trees wouldn't exude grease, and without time, they wouldn't have fragrance, which is like no man can reach success without millions of setbacks. The idea of agarwood highly matches the soul of Chinese culture.

  To know agarwood, one needs to know agarwood's spirit content, which will let us become clearer and understand what obstacle means to us. We will inherit this spirit, and Chinese civilization can only shine forever if it is not afraid of the wind and rain, hardships, and difficulties.

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(中國古人焚香場景)

 

Editor:

As the market demand for incense continues to grow, resulting in the rapid decline of wild agarwood, how can we protect this endangered species effectively?

 

Adam Shi:

In the face of this grim situation, the Chinese government has listed the wild agarwood tree as a secondary protected endangered species. Also, these agarwood species are listed under CITES or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Legal trade requires a scientific export certificate. We need to promote artificial cultivation techniques actively; publicize and raise awareness of the need to protect the wild agarwood tree.

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