Incredible China Pics …
November 14th, 2008
Time for some visual fun and stimulation. Check out these incredible China pics I came across. Which particular photo moves you, and why?
Humanizing China, Part I (Survival)
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, China
13 Comments Add your own
1. Jimmy Spann | November 15th, 2008 at 1:40 am
After looking through all of the pictures, I couldn’t decide on one particular one that stood out. But there was a theme that I noticed in quite a few of the pictures that I thought was very interesting. Innovation.
There were a lot of pictures that made me want to ask the person in the picture, “How did you come up with that?” There were a few that pictured a single man carrying very large and heavy objects on his back. There was a picture of a homemade ping-pong table. And a very interesting way of begging for money with extremely long nets.
I liked the pictures and think that it gives us a little taste of some things we might see on our trip.
2. Oscar Merlin | November 15th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Picture #31 of a young coal gatherer is the best out of the 200 or so pictures. Why? Because he is smiling!!! Happiness in the face of adversity. Something that no one can ever take away from you.
3. David McKinnon | November 15th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
It was heart warming to see the picture of the woman who cares for the 20 mentally handicapped kids with her own money, especially after hearing at our last Chindia meeting that the people there mainly look after themselves (picture 13 under part 3).
4. Thijs (Shenzhen) | November 15th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Great photos, but not something you would see often in the major cities nowadays. I’m under the impression that several of these photos are already quite old (80s/90s).
5. Mark Polydoris | November 16th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
#4 in the second reel - The Plane, The Horse, The Truck. I liked that this great photo catches three completely different modes of transportation all at once, painting an interesting snapshot of what I assume is a dichotomy of past/poverty and future/technology.
I also really liked the first few photos in the first reel, showing seas of people waiting in line for the lottery, the bikes, and waiting in line for the train; especially when you compare those to the pictures of the vast open country and all the open spaces. It’s hard to imagine a country that’s even bigger (and has more people!) than our own. China seems like the kind of place that can’t be packaged into a convenient tourist location. I’m excited to learn more about it’s complexities and extremities.
I also loved the picture of the free outdoor karaoke for migrate workers! (you can’t beat that…)
6. Karen Pedersen | November 18th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I am always amazed when a picture has the ability to conjure up a variety of emotions. If a picture can say a thousand words then these pictures must be continuous conversation. Looking back at picture #58 on the Survival it is a picture of school girls crossing what was once a wood bridge. These school girls must balance on a system of ropes just so they can attend to their education needs. Exactly how does that happen? And who should come to fix that bridge? The governement? The parents? The people of the town? Or does one person in particular need to rise up and take the initial action to help them? If these schoolgirls are willing to expose themselves to such risk in the attempts to attend classes then watch out world. If one of those young ladiesshould rise up in the business world then I wouldn’t expect them to back down from a battle of negotiations. Strong will and determination in little hearts. That is a big picture indeed.
7. Amy Cook | November 19th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
The pictures that stood out to me were the early ones in the “survival” file. The photos of rush hour and and thousands of people in line for instant lottery reminded me of something I was told recently about China. The IT Manager at my last job was Chinese and had lived in Beijing before moving to the US. When I told him my MBA class would be doing a business study tour in China he told me that I would be struck by the amount of people in Beijing and that sharing my personal space with thousands of others would take me far outside of my comfort zone. He also said that when he moved to the US several years ago his major source of culture shock surrounded the fact that there were so few people on the street and that personal space was such a norm in our country. He said for awhile he felt quite lonely, despite having come with his family and despite living in a large populated city, (by our standards).
As I look at the pictures of thousands of Chinese huddled together or climbing in train windows for a seat I wonder what kind of connection these people actually have with one another. While these circumstances look uncomfortable to Westerners, perhaps they are comforting to those who live every day in crowded China.
8. Andrea Muntzel | November 24th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I looked at these pictures for the first time several days ago. As I sat down to write a post, picture after picture ran through my mind, sticking in my head and rendering me unable to write about just one. In order to do the question justice, I slept on it a few days. The pictures would pop into my head at random times as I went about my day. I watched my neighbor play with his son in their front yard and the picture of the young coal gatherer (#31 Survival) ran through my head. I walked into a clothing store with mannequins and couldn’t help but think of them split in half, legs over head, in trash bags on the side of the street (#18 Relationships). I saw a man carrying his infant son and thought of the vegetable vendor (#44 Relationships). Overall, though, the picture that stuck in my mind was the picture of the infant, wrapped lovingly in blankets, and left abandoned in the street (#51 Survival). What bothered me about the picture was that none of the strangers ran to pick him up off the dirty ground and comfort him. I couldn’t imagine seeing a baby on the ground and not doing just that. The pictures as a whole, whether dated or not, revealed a theme of duality that seems in line with China’s rapid growth. There is a man appalled at a woman for showing excessive skin and a man being taken away by the police for an illicit sexual transaction in a salon. You see a man saying goodbye to his family as they ride off on a snow-covered bus and a man surrounded by his family as he sleeps outside to get out of the heat. Similarly, when a baby is left abandoned on the ground with nobody daring to pick it up, you see a hardening of human nature that is made soft again when you see an old man’s anguish at the death of the relative in his arms. The long lines of peasants willing to sell their blood for money is a difficult comparison to mannequins left on the street curb, completely useless and symbolic of money wasted on “desire” instead of “survival.” The buildings taking the place of playgrounds are another thematic contrast of China’s modernity coupled with the past. The pictures taken together make up a very interesting commentary…
9. Eric White | November 28th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
One picture that was particularly eye-opening to me was in the first section entitled: “16. To help flatten the earth, the children lay their bodies on the wooden plank”
Comming from the central valley in California, inefficiencies in farming meant not having a tractor that used a laser-level to level the ground, a gps to till perfectly straight rows, plant seeds every x inches, and to harvest the crop. I was not expecting this when talking about farming in China. I wasn’t expecting anything close. What I had imagined was at the least an ox pulling a till. This picture illustrates just how labor-intensive and primitive farming in China is and just how far they have to come.
10. Raquel Rusing | November 30th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Title: Pedestrians gawk at an abandoned baby.
This was hard to see.
Why can’t someone do something? But what would that something be…?
11. Patrick Johansing | December 8th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
#31. I feel more connected. Many of the pictures show China’s enormity, and I focus on our differences. But #31 put a face to the crowds. I thought that he was smiling out of pride. I used to smile when I was seen doing something “grown-up.” That kid and I probably don’t have much in common, but I think that we could find some similarities.
12. Mark Wegemer | December 9th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Many of these pictures were mindboggling. I went to an AME conference in Toronto this quarter and a speaker talked about differences in different cultures with respect to weaknesses and strengths, not weaknesses and strengths of the economies or governments but weaknesses and strengths of the people in those economies.
It was a lecture on increasing your well being and becoming a better individual in the working atmosphere. This speaker made an interesting comparison of the people of the United States and the people in China and other countries. He asked one question. If you could choose between the two, “Would you rather promote your strengths or improve your weaknesses?”
Instantly, I said I want to improve my weaknesses to become a more rounded individual. So does 60% of the rest of the American society. He said that some European countries were around 55%. Australia was around 52%. Now, what do you think China was?
China would rather promote their strengths by an overwhelming 80%, completely opposite of the views of the American people. The explanation is the majority of the Chinese have to scrape by. Each individual needs to promote strengths to make it in a society with so many people. In order to stay alive, the Chinese need to promote strengths and “harness” the weaknesses. This method of thinking is quite different from the Americans.
These pictures, although sad, do not surprise me. Each individual is looking out for him or her to survive in this world. Why should someone help the abandoned baby? Why should someone fix the bridge? Why should someone help the stalled car? What is in it for them is a very appropriate message that the Chinese feel. Although heart wrenching, each Chinese needs to look out for himself or herself in order to be a part of this world.
13. Xiaofei Song | December 12th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Maybe I am a Chinese citizen and grew up in China since I was born, these photos didn’t move me. Most of the photos are probably 30 to 40 years old, which show the old China in the culture revolution. I am very surprised to see these kinds of picture in our blog to show all the MBA students in the States.
After seeing this pictures and reading all the comments from you guys, I feel that I am proud of the China today, coz i see the tremendous changes within the country. Back to 1990, when I was in the elementary school in Beijing, I was the only one in my class had bathroom at home. But now, all my classes have there own apartment, and some of them may have more than two bathrooms.
When I see these pictures, I also feel some Chinese culture that shows in these photos doesn’t exist anymore. Some of them could be found in some area, but they are also very rare.
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