Bill Potts on WONDER

I would encourage you: When your metaphorical shady, unmarked van arrives--you should get in!

There is no telling what will happen when you follow your wonder, when you are curious about things--and you engage with that thing that you were always curious about on the edge of your experience or the edge of your knowledge.

If you would just . . . engage it, there's no telling what it will lead to , where you will end up, you might end up in an Australian country town where everybody loves being Chinese or taking part in Chinese culture!

All these masters fled to our tiny island city, and they started to flourish because they were all together, they were all learning from each other ... so the art elevated to this new level; and even today there is no place like Hong Kong in terms of making dragons and lions.

And what makes an Imperial Dragon is each of these individual scales, and they're made like this... by a guy like this... In a tiny 300 square-foot shop in Shau Kei Wan, a 125 meter dragon sprang forth... Each [scale] takes about an hour to make. And there are 7,000 of them.

Twelve members of their family . . . spent the entire year making all of these scales from scratch--so that is the real art . . . This is the dragon as it was as it was just being made, and I thought it was so wondrous that this amazing transcendent thing was being made in such humble premises.

I had been told all my life that a) either Hong Kong had no real culture, or b) even if it did, it couldn't be translated elsewhere. But this entire city is living proof that it can. The love for it was just transporting.

This is probably the first and last time that we'll see anything like this--all four of Bendigo's major Dragons together. These three Dragons came out to meet this new Dragon to show him his new home . . . It was such a moving experience, and all of this was from stepping into a shady van. You've got to follow your wonder, right?

I was interested in people's stories and this would become a theme for me. I was just interested in, not so much what they looked like, but what they do, and what's going on behind that facade.

I said, 'you know, it's the best when art does useful stuff like that.' And he was really patient with me and he said, 'well, you know, when art does useful stuff, as you say... that's actually Design.'

Without me knowing, I had actually begun wandering off into this direction, this very windy, unpredictable little side route.

He told me to come over and do this program about upcycling, and this is how my life became entwined with taxis.

In this particular moment, I don't know why... I think I was just spurred on by the sense of wonder... I saw these guys on a Saturday afternoon playing Mahjong, and I decided to disturb them and asked if I could perhaps buy the scrap material that they had lying around.

But then all these things actually came together, and it was amazing to see that people could actually recognize the material because what I learned was, though ubiquitous, everybody has some kind of contact with a taxi. Everybody has a story with it.

There's something very subtle about Hong Kong culture. It is not, generally speaking, in your face. But if you take the time to really wonder and be curious, it has so much to offer.

People really just got by on their ingenuity, and resourcefulness, and intelligence.

The suit is not a uniform, it's actually an expression of your own identity.

It's only a cultural wasteland if you are not paying attention.

So this is where wonder gets all wrapped up with fear, because there was all this anxiety coming from me... Should I be doing this? Can I legitimately be charging money? I'm literally flying by the seat of my pants!

Wonder doesn't often have a safety net, nor will people always approve.