I was diagnosed with moderate depression in my third year of undergraduate studies, and I went through this very difficult period before I got an offer for a master’s degree at the University of the Arts London. The stress of my studies and fear of the future took hold of me and I often felt so anxious and nervous that I was afraid to be alone in my room. I used to spend the day alone in bed, doing nothing, wrapping myself tightly in the covers, closing my eyes, and sleeping, which made me feel safe and calm.
I’ve seen rope bondage-related artwork on the internet before, and I’ve also seen offline, fashion-related rope bondage performances when I was interning at a fashion brand, so I’ve always been aware of the existence of rope bondage and was curious about it. Being so enamored with the feeling of being tightly wrapped in a quilt, I wondered if rope bondage would be more secure than a quilt. So I started searching for local reach-out rope bondage places. I was living in Hangzhou, a city in the south of China, and after a lot of searching, I found out that there is a famous subculture of diverse rope bondage in Hangzhou called “Heiwushe” (黑物社), which is founded by rope bondage artist CK.
Rope bondage has always been a gray area in China because people associate rope bondage with sex, and Heiwushe’s events are often terminated because they are reported to the police (someone may tell the police that someone is having a gang bang somewhere, etc.), which is not allowed in China, even if Heiwushe’s members aren’t having a gang bang but are just having a bondage session. The police have to take action to cancel the event if they get a report, they don’t care what Heiwushe members are doing). It’s not uncommon for CK to have his mainstream social media accounts banned in China, so his parties are almost exclusively in speakeasies, and he relies solely on Instagram and Twitter to spread the word (since these social media outlets are banned in China, you need to use a VPN for them to work properly, which makes them more private and reduces the risk of them being reported to the police).
After I contacted CK, I finally found CK’s rope bondage studio in a residential area on the outskirts of Hangzhou, which is a very private place, and I was even a little scared to go there alone. I didn’t have to pay for a ticket to CK’s workshop to model, but I did have to buy a ticket to learn how to bond with someone else, and I didn’t want to spend the money, so I decided to do the workshop! I didn’t want to spend money, so I decided to model for this workshop because I didn’t know how to tie people up anyway.
CK called me over and talked to me, I said I don’t want my legs to be spread apart, I want my legs to be together, don’t put too much pressure on my back because I went to the gym yesterday, etc. I said a lot of things. I made a lot of requests, CK said ok, and then began my first rope bondage experience. At first, I was a bit nervous about relaxing my body as I was surrounded by about 15 colleagues watching CK bondage me. CK covered my head with a patch to block my view and I slowly relaxed, as time went by my body was tightly bound by the ropes but I felt safe, rope bondage is really more effective than a quilt. Later on, CK even lifted me gently from the ground, I felt calmer than ever as if CK and I were the only two people in the studio. After the experience, CK massaged my limbs, hugged me, and patiently told me that the indentations left by the rope on my body would disappear in a few hours. I was very happy with my first rope bondage experience and became close friends with CK. Since then I have been working part-time for CK as his rope bondage instructional model, and sometimes I work with him on his rope bondage photo shoots.
