Yak Around the World

Circle of Designs

As you all know social change and making a social impact around the globe is our main goal at Shokay. From our Yak Around the World Campaign, at Shokay we are always trying to find new ways to help those in need to attain a sustainable life. 

We are relaunching one of our projects called Design Circle. We are inviting knitwear designers to donate patterns in support of promoting sustainable development in rural Western China. Your patterns will of course be credited to you and featured on in our stores. We'll give you the yarn and everything you need and all you need to do and everything is in your control. Designers in everywhere, if you got some cute designs send them on our way for social change around the world. 

We'll also give you some yarn as a token of appreciation. 

It's the softest yarn in the world, straight from the back of yaks. 

Have some cheese with that wine

Yaks are wonders of the world. Not only do they provide us with warm cashmere like yarn to make scarves, mittens, and hats to keep us soft and cozy. You can also apparently use yak milk to make cheese that contains nutritional value. 

Yak cheese is not like any regular cheese. It is not your typical golden yellow cheddar cheese or thick creamy brie that you slather on your cracker to go with your wine. It's a delicate gourmet cheese straight from the yaks of Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia. 

Yak cheese has 3 times more omega-3 fatty acids than cheddar cheese. You know omega-3, the good fat that helps your heart. 

Yak cheese? Probably has a peculiar odor and unfamiliar taste. 

Would you like some cheese with that "whine" . 

If you do check out Shokay to see where you can find this deliciousness for your next "whine" tasting party. 

Campaign Launch @ Taikang Lu!

Here are the yaks on display at the Shokay Taikang Lu store on Saturday! Each yak will be traveling with a matching yak hat and a folder with a travelogue and guestbook. Guests at our launch event on Saturday signed the guestbooks, wishing our yaks safe and happy travels.

More yaks! The ones in the basket still have yet to be assigned their first destination. We're looking for changemakers in Europe, since that region is rather underrepresented right now. Let us know if you know anyone who you think deserves a yak!

 

Each yak had a card describing the first changemaker they will be visiting.

 

Twitter asks, "What are you doing?" The yaks ask, "What are you doing to change the world today?"

 

Starting at 3pm, we served yak cheese with wine and crackers! Yeah, our yaks are classy like that.

Himalayan Sunset is the first yak to depart! Calvin Chin, founder of Qifang.cn, an online community founded to help poor students solve the problems of higher education expenses, came to pick up this yak.

 

Our party guests also had fun taking pictures with our yaks.

 

Thanks to Yugo (Shokay summer intern from Japan!), we even had live music at the launch!

 

We set up a twitter station where guests could tweet their reactions to yak cheese, or just anything about Shokay, social change, and yaks.

 

Everyone loved the Shokay twitter bird.

 

Shokay co-founder Carol Chyau yaks with party guests.

 

Writing notes to the yaks.

The yaks will be on display for a few more days, and then they are off to see the world...We're going to miss them here in Shanghai!

Get psyched for our campaign launch event!

This coming Saturday, we will host a send-off party for our traveling yaks! The event will be held at Shokay's Taikang Lu flagship store. All day Saturday, we will have fun activities for the whole family, plus a wine and yak cheese Tweetup starting at 3pm:

For everyone:

-See our display of all our traveling yaks! Learn about wonderful people and organizations they will be visiting and add your best wishes to their autograph books.

-Meet Carol Chyau, one of Shokay’s co-founders, and learn how Shokay got started, what makes us a social enterprise, and why we love yaks so much!

-Take a picture with our huge hand-knit Shokay yak and our yak hat and enter a drawing for your very own baby yak!

For adults:

-Wine and cheese tasting: Come try our Mei Xiang yak cheese, produced with yak milk by a Tibetan family in Yunnan Province! The Mei Xiang Cheese Farm is a social enterprise currently being incubated by Ventures in Development. Our goal is to bring this unique flavor to cheese lovers all around the world. We will begin serving yak cheese, wine, and yak cheese quiche around 3pm.


For Twitterers:

-To all our fellow Shanghai Tweeps: You’re invited to come tweetup over wine and yak cheese! Come between 3pm and 6pm to meet each other, chat about online social media, or just schmooze.

-We will have a laptop and WiFi available for you to tweet your reaction to our yak cheese and your bon voyage’s to our traveling yaks! Anyone who tweets while at the Taikang Lu store will also be entered into the baby yak drawing.

-The Yak Around the World Campaign Twitter account is one way you can keep up with our traveling yaks’ latest updates! Follow us @DontJustYak.

-Don’t know what Twitter is? No problem – all of Shokay’s team members tweet and will be able to explain anything you don’t understand about those 140 character posts. Use this opportunity to learn why everyone is yakking about Twitter!

RSVP to danielle@shokay.com. Any yak lover who RSVPs and brings 5 or more additional guests gets a baby yak!

Not going to be in Shanghai this weekend? You can still follow the event live on Twitter @DontJustYak. 

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We are still in the process of finalizing which outstanding changemakers will be receiving yaks! Check back in a few days - we will post some information about each changemaker and his/her organization, as well as which yak will be visiting them.

 

Announcing the Yak Around the World Campaign!

Welcome to the Yak Around the World website!

On August 8, 2009, Shokay will launch the Yak Around the World Campaign by sending 24 hand-knit baby yaks to 24 individuals who are dedicating their time and careers to creating positive social change. During their world tour, the yaks will highlight changemakers and their innovative work, aiming to inspire people all over the world to think of new ways they can do good and have an impact.

When each person receives their yak, they will help kick off the campaign by answering the question, “What are you doing to change the world today?” They will then take a picture with their yak, write a description of their cause or organization, and submit it to Shokay via a simple online form. It is then their turn to send the yak to another changemaker they know, and that person will help continue to spread the campaign all over the globe.

Check back here soon to see where our yaks will be going! In the meantime, they will pack their bags...