“Xian”(仙), often translated into English as "transcendent" or "immortal", is used to describe entities who have attained immortality or supernatural realms, wandering between the stages of humans and gods. Some scholars believe that the word “transcendent” might be a better term for “xian”, as their age can be limited, and their existences are not static. On the contrary, they stay in motion, and their motion of “elevating” and “crossing boundaries” are seen as the most accurate character to classify them.
They were born inside the society and made their choices to step out. The “in” and the “out” create their transformations. Once they come back to the human society from their seclusion, they would decade back to their human form and become mortals again. The “society” in this context can be translated to the environment that exists within one’s knowledge or understanding, in other words, the places that are reachable. The foreign, the unknown, the far away can all be places where the transcendent are hiding in. These places are not purely made up — they can be found on maps, drawings, or records, can be heard of, but can never be visited or guided to. The sense of distance enables the creation of myths and tales, separating the transcendent apart from our reality.
In Han Dynasty reliefs, Xian are depicted as figures with feathered wings or as hybrids of birds and humans. As wanderers from the realm of imagination, Xian take on the role once held by birds, embodying a form of translation. Their constant crossing of invisible boundaries becomes a physical manifestation of language—fluid, adaptable, and ever-changing.
Xian do not eat grains, but subsist on jujubes, mushrooms(Ganoderma lucidum/Lingzhi or Reishi), dew and cloud.
Thus, referencing bird's hyoid bone, I designed a cloud catcher.
The word for cloud（云）in Chinese also means “to speak”. When water is sprayed onto the mesh or someone “speaks”to the device, the mythical realms of Xian reveal themselves or fade away.
I organized my discovery and observation of "Xian", inserting it into a bird-watching book as a new species of bird.
