Can you believe? Mushrooms, a tree hole, candlesticks, a log cabin…all these things that usually appear in fairy tales were made by a Guangdong girl with 100 kilograms of waste paper.

Using waste paper as the raw material, Xiao Qianfeng (小芊枫), a 25-year-old art teacher from Zhaoqing in West Guangdong, created a dreamlike mushroom cabin that have gone viral on Bilibili.com, a video-sharing platform with young people as its main users. The vivid works, featuring scenes from animated films and natural landscapes, have been hailed by many Internet users as "a fairy tale in reality".

So far, the video of Xiao Qianfeng's process of making the mushroom cabin has reached more than 1.5 million views on Bilibili, ranking 15th on the site's daily most-viewed list.

Earlier this year, Xiao Qianfeng returned to her hometown in Zhaoqing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When she saw the 100 kg scrap newspapers and discarded cardboard boxes that had been heaped at home for almost two years, she decided to make full use of her leisure time to build a tree house in Andersen's fairy tales that she had dreamt of since she was a child.

"I have always liked to make small objects out of paper, which are waterproof and resistant to damage after processing," said Xiao Qianfeng. "I didn't intend to shoot a video at the very beginning, but my young sister strongly recommended me to record the tree house production process in the form of video. The original intention of the video was to publish an elaborate tutorial on its design and painting process, but I didn’t expect the social responses to be so enthusiastic," she added.

Although the video is only about 20 minutes, the complex and lengthy production process took her more than five months. "Though I have lots of experience in doing manual work, it is my first time to make such a large artwork. For example, in order to make the tree trunk part stronger, I glued several layers of newspapers and the skin on my hands was peeled after finishing."

After coloring, decoration, and installing lighting systems, the lovely tree house was finally done. At the end of the video, Xiao Qianfeng sat in the biggest mushroom, made a pot of tea, lit a scented candle, and read a book leisurely. She enjoyed the beauty of life in this private space of her own.

Xiao Qianfeng now has attracted 110,000 followers on Bilibili after the first video became popular. She decided to treat video shooting as her main business and has begun to shoot other handicraft production videos.

In addition to the tree house, she has also made some warm homes for an adopted cat and a hedgehog in the video. Steps were nicely built in front of the homes to make it easier for these small animals to enter.

"I hope that through my videos, people will be inspired to explore artistic creation and find beauty in life," she said.

Author｜Ariel

Editor｜Monica, Jerry