This is a story of Tibet I once heard. In one fine morning, when a veteran hunter from the North Tibet came out of his tent and was getting ready to have a bronze bowl of buttered tea, he happened to glimpse at a fat Tibetan antelope standing on a grass slope a few yards across him. The hunter’s eyes lit up and he got excited from this lucky encounter. His mind was clear in the early morning after a night a good sleep, and he quickly returned to his tent and fetched his shotgun. He calmly held it up and aimed at the antelope. Strangely, instead of running away, that fat antelope looked at the hunter with pitiful eyes, and knelt down on its forelegs. Tears came out of its woeful eyes. The old hunter’s heart got softened and released his finger on the trigger. There’s an old saying known to everyone in the Tibetan area, “Everything in this world, from birds soaring in the sky to mice hidden underground, can perceive human emotions”. It was obvious that the antelope was begging for mercy by kneeling before the hunter, whom showed no sympathy for the antelope, and pulled the trigger with his eyes shut. As the shot rang out, the Tibetan antelope collapsed, it still maintained the kneeling position after death, and that two lines of tears remained clear on its face.
The old hunter couldn’t figure out why the antelope knelt down. He has never encountered such a strange thing in his decades of hunting career… With an uneasy feeling, he decided to cut open the antelope’s belly and removed its skin. When his sharp knife opened its abdomen, the old hunter’s hands began to tremble, and his butcher’s knife dropped on the ground…He saw a young antelope lying in its mother’s womb. It has taken shape, yet it’s already dead. The old hunter suddenly realized why that Tibetan antelope looked so chubby and why it tried so hard to bend down and kneel before him. It was begging the hunter to spare its child’s life!
The old hunter did not continue his dismemberment of that antelope and didn’t go hunting that day. He dug a hole on the hillside and buried the antelope and its unborn child. Along with these two lives, he also buried his shotgun…
Since then, this old hunter disappeared on the grassland of North Tibet, and no one knows his whereabouts.
Our human’s lives are precious, so are animals’ lives.
Like us humans, animals also have thoughts and emotions, and this planet is only so colorful because of their existence. Unfortunately, we resort to all extreme measures to hurt them just to decorate us. One day, when we look back, we may realize that humans will vanish on this planet the day animals are gone.
To protect animals is to protect ourselves, let us join hands with animals, and protect our common home. Start from ourselves and refuse to use animals’ fur... We firmly believe that the earth will be more beautiful tomorrow.
The theme of this event is “Love”. Let us care for animals, embrace nature, and beautify our lives with artificial fur. I hope that more consumers can understand, accept and love the fashion value and environmental performance of artificial fur through this event. At the same time, we will seek the promising young designers in the artificial fur fashion field, and further convey the concept of green fur fashion through the design and promotion of garments and accessories.
Excerpt from the speech at the launch ceremony of the 2015 China International College Students Fashion Week “Jinni Cup” Artificial Fur Fashion Design Competition