Author: Dingzhong Ding & Haoyan Jiang
“Jasmine” is a pseudonym, but it represents everything she sees in herself and wants herself to be. Elegant. Exuding subtle fragrance. Applauding from behind the scenes, away from the spotlights. Humble, but blooming.
And that’s all she aims to do: to bloom, and help others bloom too. Her love for traveling marked the beginning of this journey.
A northwesterner herself, Jasmine started to travel extensively across China eighteen years ago, after she first met her husband. These domestic excursions soon turned international after she had her first child. Traveling was always much more than just going places: it was a gateway to a broader horizon, a foray into a larger world. From France and Spain, to Nepal and India, Jasmine did it all: testing the sea waters of Palau, chasing down wild beasts in South Africa, piercing through the clouds of New Zealand…Drawn to adventure, but also to the inner peace she feels getting away from the big city, Jasmine would found a piece of paradise in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Life on the road was rushed, but the fruits of her travels - the wonders of nature, the novelty of culture, and the liberation of escape - were never not worth the journey. To this day, Jasmine still remembers vividly sitting down at small cafe in Southern France, enjoying the view of the hills and the villas before being chastised by the waiter, and being forced to leave, dumbfounded. It wasn’t until later that Jasmine and her fellow travelers learned that taking a seat with small-sized drinks was considered inappropriate. Looking back at this bittersweet memory, she would laugh ever so slightly, and think of all the good old times she and her loved ones had on the road.
Traveling was for her spiritual as much as it was physical: picking out her best outfit, putting on her best smile, stripping herself of sense, and letting her feelings take charge. Inspired, Jasmine stumbled upon the idea: live every day as if on a journey somewhere, and dress as if traveling. One thing led to another, and before she knew it, she was starting her own clothing brand, Zhan Fang (Chinese for “bloom”).
At the time, Zhan Fang was the first clothing brand to daringly call itself “travel wear”, but it was also fortunate enough to have the support of loyal buyers from the very start. For 15 years, these customers, who would later become close acquaintances and cherished friends, have stood by Zhan Fang in its best and worst days. Being the “travel wear” online retailer that Zhan Fang promised to be, the team would even take loyal supporters of the brand on trips to different cities and across the world. After several of such trips, a WeChat group chat was formed, and the rest was history - in fact, at its peak, Zhan Fang had more than a hundred group chats, large and small, across different cities, all of which were filled with enthusiasts ready to congregate. The large influx of buyers and travel hobbyists took even Jasmine by surprise. Soon, Zhan Fang saw a rapidly growing community, or rather, a garden of “bloomers” from even the furthest corners of the country eager to participate in the myriad of events Jasmine painstakingly organized. Some of these events were designed to inspire, some to heal. In 2020, amid the national pandemic, it was such events that helped “bloomers” cope and heal.
Jasmine’s team at Zhan Fang had already done all the preparation needed to launch a new line of clothing when COVID hit. Everything was done and ready to go: with one word Jasmine could put on sale the tailored clothing they already had in store. But watching the grim unraveling of events in Wuhan, it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel right to retail “travel wear” when the millions of people suffering and in crisis, when the nation was in desperate need for healing.
So healing was exactly what Zhan Fang did. Jasmine told her team to hold up on the launch, and instead invest all their attention in helping their fellow “bloomers”, asking supporters from all over the country for donations to help Wuhan combat the crisis. Immediately, the garden of “bloomers” answered, with a vociferous “yes”. In a matter of days, a group chat among travel hobbyists and retail buyers was transformed into a platform of assistance. Online events were set up to help people cope with the ongoing battle against disease: a seminar for non-violent communication, a poetry workshop, a creative writing safe space…Zhan Fang tended to its blooming flowers, and healed its lush gardens. Having been through the highest highs and lowest lows, the community of “bloomers” are now stronger than ever before.
Other than travel and her clothes brand, writing is another way of exploring the world and helping those around her to Jasmine. She loves writing since her childhood when she tried to jot down her thoughts and put her dreams on paper. Those words were mirroring her own life and were sculpted across time and space. She once again realized the power of words in 2020, as the Covid pandemic was raging around the world. The plague confined everyone to their homes while shutting people from one another in that dark era. It was Wechat messages sent by the bloomers that shone on Jasmine. At that moment, Jasmine was touched by people’s care to each other through heartening words.
Inspired by this, Jasmine took steps to empower other people through writing. She always draws from her own experiences which she believes that can resonate with people. Her words are simplistic yet full of emotions. Those words can burrow down to people’s hearts, evoking their passions for life and for freedom.
On her personal blog, her story of quitting a stable job at bank in pursuit of other opportunities in Beijing created ripples among the Internet users. In Beijing, she received an unexpected job which would further fuel her passion for writing—being an art director of China’s best-selling author Rao Xueman. Through many conversations with the writer, Jasmine must have deepened her understanding of writing and its effects. This paved the way for her writing two books years later—‘Blossom’ and ‘Dear Life’. Before readers unfolds a modern woman who lives her life with enthusiasm and strives to spread this enthusiasm to others.