Limitless is a project dedicated to creating a vision of an ideal world and empowering youth to help us realize that we have the power to shape the world. In chaotic times like these, it is vital that we remain hopeful and joyful, which is why we engage with our audience via challenge questions and interview feature posts to spark our imagination for a better world!
Younger generations GenZ and onwards are the future. It was amazing to have an exchange like this with them and be able to share a little bit of wisdom that I’ve gathered over the years.
-Kimberly
Originally from New Jersey, Kimberly Wong is a fashion designer who has lived in Shanghai for the past nine years. Kimberly came to China jobless, and hopped skipped and leaped around in food & beverage as a partner of Sproutworks, a healthy chain restaurant in Shanghai and Beijing. As she advocated for more sustainable diets, she also started a fashion brand: cukimber.
She loves experimenting with fabric and painting, especially those with bright colors. During the pandemic, Kimberly created beautiful and reusable masks, adding a special, creative color to today's hard times.
check out cukimber full masks collection
1 What is your first, earliest memory of joy?
My first memory of joy was eating a cup of blueberry yogurt with my grandma. I think I was probably only two years old.
2 What imagery brings to light human heart-to-heart connection?
To me, news and photojournalism images from events where they’re actually covering a positive story instead of a negative one. Those make me feel most connected. Other than that, though, it’s mostly actions where you interact with others that make me feel most connected. Conversations over meals, catching up with friends…the feeling that you get from someone in those moments.
An example of this is my work with Democrats Abroad China. Our biggest initiative is called Vote From Abroad, which is a nonpartisan initiative where we help every single American living abroad to register for their right to vote. So we train and prepare extensively to help people understand the entire system. One day, we had training, and then there was a woman that just said, “I would like to get in touch.”
It turned out that she was connected to 200+ Americans in Beijing. So we spent the morning putting together care packages with the actual envelopes to send over when you vote (yes, they are a specific dimension) as well as stickers to help people get excited and proud to share their American civic duty together. That was a real moment of connection.
3 What imagery, showing diversity, brings to life human heart-to-heart connection?
One thing that we’ve been seeing lately, is lots of people speaking up for Black Lives Matter. People of different faiths and backgrounds are speaking up because they care about others. To me, it’s really touching to see even during this sad time in the US.
4 How has your value of sustainability translated into your work as a fashion designer with cukimber?
Sustainability is not just like a buzzword, right? It's not just a concept. It's more like a way that you might choose to live your life or a way that you might try and formulate your business for fashion, which is an industry that puts out a lot of waste. Especially in the beginning, part of me actually had to forego finding the most organic and environmentally sustainable materials off the top of the bat because, frankly, I didn't have enough money to do that.
I had planned to move to the US this year and expand my business there, but after COVID, I had to throw that plan out of the window. I told myself, “I’m going to try and just use little scraps of fabric that I still have left and make masks.”
My colorful masks are created from leftover fabric, for example, when you make a sleeve, you have a lot of like weird shapes leftover that you can't really do much with. This was sustainable in the way that I was using the resources that I already had to make these masks for an important purpose. It was the innovation that came out of necessity.
（www.cukimber.com/collections/artwork）
While she was pursuing her fashion design dream, Kimberly did not forget her roots. She transformed her emotions and thoughts into colorful, bright, and intricate designs. Kimberly also did not forget her passions while pursuing her artistic career. She is the Chairwoman of Democrats Abroad China, an Asian American passionate about other Asian American issues, and an entrepreneur who lives a sustainable lifestyle.
We were honored and deeply moved to interview Kimberly about her passion for life and art. Thank you Kimberly, we learned so much from you!
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