Curatorial Narrative

I am Lanlan, a Fujian Minnan native who has lived in the Nordic region for twenty years. I am both a cross-cultural curator and a recorder of everyday life.

These seventy wooden knives, along with the handwoven textiles bearing ancient patterns, form what I call my “emotional archive” gathered over two decades in Sweden.

In markets, in villages, and in quiet corners of antique shops, I encountered them—or perhaps, they found me, at moments silently marked by time.

Each knife and each piece of fabric carries its own origin and its own story.When you come close to them, you can feel the grain of time and the gentle, authentic power of everyday life.

The wooden knife is a man’s promise to his wife;

The textile patterns are the warmth and order a woman gives to a home.

Together, they form a silent poem of Nordic daily life—

a poem about companionship, trust, and the care invested into the everyday.

I have always believed this:

No matter where we come from, human longings for life are deeply shared.

To be seen, to be cherished, to be treated with tenderness;To have rituals in the everyday;To feel the warmth of handmade objects;To trust in something lasting—these are emotions that transcend culture.

This time, I bring the Nordic sense of slowness and quiet beauty to Qiawuting in Chengdu.If your visit here helps you look at your own home, your relationships, and your daily life with even a little more tenderness, then this exhibition has gained a new life through you.

I choose to believe that The Nordic Knife of Promise is a small poem gifted to the world by everyday life itself.

What Exactly Is a Nordic Wooden Knife

In traditional Nordic life, the wooden knife was originally a woman’s everyday tool.It was used to strip the tough outer layer of flax stems, allowing the soft fibers inside to be processed, spun, and woven.Flax was central to domestic life, so the knife accompanied nearly every woman’s daily labor.

After the 19th century, this simple labor tool gradually shed its purely practical function and acquired new meanings: it became a token of love, a wedding gift, and an heirloom passed down through families.

Men carved wooden knives by hand and imbued them with profound meaning through ornamentation:

• Flowers and heart motifs — symbols of wishes for abundance, vitality, and a harmonious family life

• Vine patterns — commonly used to bless weddings and new beginnings

• Names and dates — branded as a solemn promise made “once in a lifetime”

Complementing the knife were handwoven household textiles—table runners, pillowcases, borders, and festive patterns.They recorded the order of the home, the subtleties of relationships, and the traces of everyday life.

Love was carved into wood;Daily life was woven into cloth.Simple, yet capable of transcending time.

Exhibition Essence

Cross-cultural resonance reveals something timeless:

whether in a Nordic village or a modern city, the deepest human desires remain the same—to be treated with tenderness,to hold love in a tangible form,to see the everyday placed with care.

Life deserves to be lived slowly.

Love can be preserved in the simplest ways.

The wooden knife, the woven cloth, the handmade touch, the passing of time—these seemingly modest things contain the most profound and moving forces of life.

This is the Nordic gift to the world.

And this is what The Nordic Knife of Promise hopes to share with you:

a small poem of everyday beauty and quiet tenderness.

Craft Item

Table Runner 

This table runner is born from the patterns and stories within this exhibition.

It carries the quiet simplicity of the wooden knife,

and extends the Nordic philosophy of gentle, mindful everyday living.

When it rests upon your table,

you may notice something tender

that the steadiness and reassurance we long for in a home

can, in fact, be held softly by a single piece of cloth.

Merchandise for Sale

May this cloth become a small piece of everyday tenderness in your life.