Off the Grid：Going Back in Time

Off-gridders are often called the “rebels of the era”, for doing things their own way and not caring about how people look at them. They cut off completely from their original lives only to seek their ideal ways of life. After years of self-sustainable life, “Yeah Man” MOK Ho-kwong is eager to pay a visit to these unparalleled, unworldly, dedicated off-gridders.

In Canada and Japan, where living off the grid is popular, numerous families, married couples, or even individuals put this way of life to practice. In Tofino on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, artists Wayne and Catherine built their own home “Freedom Cove” in the middle of a lake with old rafts that were used in fish culture. There is no access to their home via land. The husband and wife have lived on the island for 26 years on farming and fishing. They intentionally keep a distance from the city, all in the hope of being entirely free in their lives.

It may seem natural to live off the grid in the nature, yet being an off-gridder and a metropolis dweller at the same time is not nonsense either. In the city of Kunitachi, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan lives Ms FUJII, a textile-dyeing artist also known as “Solar Girl”. Her experience in the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 prompted her to cut off electricity supplied by the government and live off the grid at home in the city. Relying on solar power and all kinds of little household gadgets she designs by herself to fulfill basic needs, she is able to reshape the way she lives. Yeah Man will visit these two households in Canada and Japan, get to understand their daily lives, and take the opportunity to think about the reason behind his going off-grid in the first place.