Photographic Reflections of/on Urbanity: The Creative Resilience of Java’s Slums

In the interlacing streets of the Kampung in Kota Gede, many houses are painted in bright colors or green, the color of Islam. There is an architectural and urban organization to protect from the harsh climate. Semi-detached houses are tightened around narrow streets where tar is replaced by concrete to better protect from the stifling effects of the sun. Photo : Loup Calosci

The perception, both local and global of Indonesia’s slums has long been shaped by the stigma they are subjected to: the social marginality of the inhabitants, the fragility of the buildings, the moral, legal and morphological denunciation of informality, illegality and spontaneity. Many dimensions in these neighbourhoods, often located on the side of tropical torrents whose floods are ferocious, are in fact not viable, first and foremost exposure to the deadly risks of flooding. A closer attention to these urban fragments however, reveals another dimension: that of interstices which, in contrast to the city of congested avenues, concrete extensions, exclusive shopping centres or business districts and closed residences, offer persistent paths of urbanity.

Photography makes it possible to shift the gaze and question the very categories by which these districts have been seen. The image of marginality can be tempered by the innumerable signs of the inhabitants’ integration into the life of the urban ensemble as well as by the deployment of daily life on the scale of a sensitive humanity and sense of community. The buildings themselves no longer represent the stigma of illegality, but rather signs of pragmatism and urban belonging. In other words, informality does have a form, urbanity from below is one of the strongest and most resilient expressions of urbanity in general. Through the inventiveness, perseverance and unfailing aspiration of their inhabitants to create the conditions for a decent life, these neighbourhoods no longer represent the trace of a failure, but rather a potential source of inspiration for the city as a whole. Naturally, securing the neighbourhoods against hydrological risks, stabilising the soils and slopes and improving the habitat and the connections are necessary horizons and involves interaction on a new basis with the long hostile spheres of administration, investment and regulation.

However, what the photographic experience teaches is how much urbanity is already present in these districts, emanating from the formidable capacity of the inhabitants to make it happen between the intimacy of habitats and the conviviality of public spaces. This urban character, in contrast to the so-called legal, formal, planned or organised city, whose many faces say the opposite (exclusion, separation, harshness and closure) has the capacity to create common spaces and to promote shared practices. The interstices are no longer voids that are hastily and clandestinely filled, they are, as the photographs suggest, places from which a real collective and civic life emerges. This urbanity not only has to be valued and protected: it could also be a source of inspiration. As for the photographic viewpoint, it is, we argue with this artist’s book whose fragmentation is itself a reflection of/on the nature of urban fragments, an integral part of the urban character.

Wild plate fence along a street in Yogyakarta. The ingenious anti collapsing system forgot the pedestrian's interest. Photo: Fred Maillard

When space is lacking houses rely on the consolidated foothills of streams and rivers, like the terraces of rice and tea fields, to escape the effects of the rainy seasons and the many floods they produce. Photo : Loup Calosci

Numerous buildings belong to the cut-up and DIY aesthetic. The quite rough use of materials is as common as the bamboo scaffolding. Photo: Fred Maillard

Scooters and motorcycles are valuable properties that allow you to move around as well as to work as a taxi or courier. They are often seen parked inside shops or in the main room of single storey houses. Photo: Fred Maillard

A motorcycle repair shop in Yogyakarta. Photo: Fred Maillard

In Kampung Pakuncen, as in many other Kampung, the inhabitants share small squares that look onto their landing. Cleaned every morning, they are mostly used as storage and parking for motorcycles. Photo : Loup Calosci

A minimal warung in Yogyakarta. Mobile of fixed, posh or modest, but always compact, the warungs are small food shops which occupy the sidewalks, arcades and the edges of streets with great freedom. Photo: Fred Maillard

Due to the equatorial climate and its heavy rains, tarpaulins belong to the vocabulary of Javanese urban forms. Here, in Wonosobo, it's protecting the construction site of a small neighborhood mosque. Photo: Fred Maillard

Street corner in Yogyakarta. Bricks, concrete, corrugated sheet metal and luxuriant vegetation are regular parts of the urban materials swatch chart. Photo: Fred Maillard

In the royal city of Kota Gede, at the entrance of the oldest mosque of Jogjiakarta, work many puppet craftsmen, true pride of the country. Photo : Loup Calosci

Denis Bocquet, Loup Calosci and Fred Maillard, Java Tengah Combo, Paris, Terrain de Jeux, 2020, 84p., ISBN 978-2-9574189-0-9

Text by Denis Bocquet (Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Strasbourg, laboratoire AMUP), Photos by Loup Calosci (Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Belleville) and Fred Maillard (Visual artist & professor, École de la Nature et du Paysage de Blois), authors of the book (designed by Fred Maillard) Jawa Tengah Combo, Paris, Terrain de Jeux, 2020, 84p., ISBN 978-2-9574189-0-9.

“Hangzhou House” by Li Qing: Globalization is an Idea

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

The series of photography takes a large number of single houses left by the villages in the city to be demolished during the urban renewal and expansion in Hangzhou in recent years. These buildings (mostly nail households) are isolated from the original community buildings, forming a special and absurd sense of form. Photography is the last gaze of these buildings. At the same time, the images of these houses also become a special database, reflecting the aesthetic judgment of Chinese people on the rich life in imagination in an economic development and consumerism period, and the style of hybridity and cottage reflects a kind of local modernism architectural practice. The architecture is a reflection shown through community and group style, subjecting to how people receive information. It represents how knowledge of globalization is spreading and being shared throughout China.

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

Li Qing, Hangzhou House, 2017-2020

“Champêtre Entertainment” by Zhang Xiaowu: Contemporary Rural Lives in Wenzhou

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (1)

My hometown, Wenzhou, has a distinctive rural economy. The improvement of living conditions has led to a greater demand for entertainment. Entertainment is a spiritual pursuit and an attitude to life. Having grown up and worked in the countryside, I have experienced rural entertainment at first hand – it is simple or luxurious or fun or absurd, not caring about elegance or vulgarity, but only about the pleasure of entertainment.

I have always been concerned about the entertainment life in my hometown and the countryside. I made “Champêtre Entertainment” photo series based on the current situation of the countryside in the process of urbanization, and in the diverse and complex situation of countryside entertainment, I purposefully and systematically interpreted various details of entertainment through images, and presented various issues such as the conflict between old and new entertainment, the cultural genes in entertainment, the stratification of entertainment, and imitation of urban entertainment. I am not a judge, and the “Champêtre Entertainment” project is not to judge right or wrong, so I keep a certain distance from it, not to show the fun and absurdity of entertainment, but to calmly watch the various relationships in entertainment, and from it to think about the countryside within the process of rapid urbanization. I try to seek more understanding in the reality of social relationships, and to think about the value of entertainment and the pursuit of life through the context of images.

The most basic language of photography is to document, so I discipline myself to remain objective and use the plain language of the camera. Through the camera’s perspective, I obtain the rigor of the viewing, so that the viewer’s viewing also remains consistent. In the expression of entertainment objects and contents, I try to maintain their originality, presenting clear details directly, weakening the main characters and entertainment events, focusing more on the relationship between people, people and entertainment, and people and the environment in the context of entertainment, so that the images have a certain dimension and breadth, and thus interpreting the cultural stance of rural people in this present era. The photos in “Champêtre Entertainment” not only present my way of viewing the current situation of my hometown but also express my attachment to it.

Although the visual narration of “Champêtre Entertainment” is sampled from the everyday Wenzhou countryside, the locality does not limit the meaning of its representation. The commonality of the entertainment spirit of the countryside people and the popularity of these forms of entertainment in China make the visual narration of the series both unique and universal. I have spent more than five years on this project, and the process has calmed me down and made me think. It has extended my observation and understanding of the diverse culture of the countryside, clarified my relationship with it, and found my identity memory and identity experience. Countryside Entertainment has helped me to better understand myself and my hometown.

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (2)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (3)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (4)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (5)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (6)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (7)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (8)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (9)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (10)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (11)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (12)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (13)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (14)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (15)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (16)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (17)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (18)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (19)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (20)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (21)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (22)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (23)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (24)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (25)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (26)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (27)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (28)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (29)

Zhang Xiaowu, "Champêtre Entertainment" (30)

Oil-for-Development: The Shifting Dynamics of Sino-Angolan Relations

Qi Shi, Paper Processing Plant, Southern province of Angola. The development of infrastructure cooperation between China and Angola has led to the development of trading machine processing industry. Chinese businessmen are investing in more and more factories and developing rapidly.

The following article is an updated adaptation from the report « Les relations économiques Chine-Angola depuis les accords de paix de 2002 » written for the French ministry of finance (DG Trésor) between June 2018 and March 2019. A public version of the report (in French) is available here. The report entails documentary research from academic sources, French, English, Portuguese and Chinese press, along with the result of a 3-month field research in and around Luanda. Please note that neither this article nor the public version of the report represent the official view of the French ministry of finance.

Formerly a showcase for Portuguese colonialism, the Angolan capital is nowadays a motley mosaic: faded facades of 1960s apartment blocks rub shoulders with red corrugated roofs of shanty towns – or musseques – reflected in multiple mirrors of pharaonic towers. Some, interrupted in their pursuit of the sky by the abrupt fall in the price of oil in 2014, are surrounded by silent cranes.

Qi Shi, Old Portuguese Apartment Blocks, Luanda. In one of Luanda's main alley, typical mid-20th century Portuguese apartment blocks testify of the late colonial period.

Qi Shi, La Marginal, Luanda. The see promenade the construction of which a second phase is negotiated with Chinese contractors, is the privileged spot to engage in physical activities. Deserted during the day, it resonates of footsteps of early bird joggers in the morning, Kizomba and Koduro beats rythmed by coaches directions at night.

If these towers symbolize a part of the China-Angola puzzle built on a background of real estate speculation, Chinese construction firms has left an even more salient mark in the underground of downtown Luanda. Sewer seals carry the Chinese characters for running water (gongshui 供水) from the Marginal prestigious sea promenade which next phase of development, entrusted under the previous presidency to China Railway 20 for 142 million USD is under renegotiations with China Road and Bridge corporation, all the way to the 5000 hectares orthogonal maze of Kilamba Kiaxi, the 3,5 billion USD satellite town built by CITIC formerly qualified as Africa’s largest ghost town.

“China has provided more than 60 billion USD in loans to Angola for infrastructure construction […]. So far, China has helped Angola build 2,800 kilometers of railways, 20,000 kilometers of roads, 100 schools, 50 hospitals and 100,000 houses.” Estimations on the sum of Chinese loans to Angola range around 50 billion USD, from these Chinese official figures to academic calculations of 43 billion USD as of 2017. According to Goldman Sachs data, China Development Bank, China Eximbank, and the ICBC held 56% of Angolan debt in 2018. China concentrated 61% of oil export, for a value of 15.3 billion USD. Angola has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Chinese State owned enterprises (SOE) infrastructure construction contracts over the last decade.

Qi Shi, Airport, Luanda. The international airport of Luanda, which construction started in 2009, is a case example for Dos Santos era corruption scandal unraveled under Joao Lourenço's leadership. Initially devolved to the CIF, already funded with 9 billion USD, its construction is not over yet. Exchanges still go through the old airport here in picture.

Qi Shi, Asphalt Production Facility, Southern province of Angola. Over the years, China has cooperated closely with Angola in infrastructure construction, and projects undertaken by Chinese companies have blossomed in Angola.

While these public contracts suffered from the crisis and most of the once massive Chinese workforce has deserted the country after 2014 due to economic turmoil (from 300 000 nationals in 2014 to 50-70,000 today according to the Chinese embassy), a different kind of crowd bustles around Luanda’s expressway. Former SOEs employees and newly arrived entrepreneurs settle – under privileged conditions, a former Reuter journalist hinted – individually or in small trade zones in the hope of tackling growing local demand for consumer products.

What is the Angola mode?

After nearly 40 years of destructive cold war-fueled conflict, the assassination of Jonas Savimbi in February 2002 made Eduardo dos Santos the unrivaled leader of the country. In dire need for financing his infrastructure reconstruction plan, he turned to the IMF that made financial help contingent on a certain number of economic reforms, notably in the very opaque oil sector. When China offered loans without such conditions, Angola became quickly convinced ot the interest in building closer ties with the country.

China Exim bank initial loans presented two other characteristics that would later be described as the Angola model, although this model had been initiated in South Sudan, and replicated in Congo, Senegal and Ghana. First, the reimbursement of capital and interests is made through commodities exports, in the Angolan case: oil. Second, the loans are used to finance construction contracts devolved to pre-determined Chinese firms. Although coming ‘without political string’, Chinese aid is hence said to be tied to these contracts. This characteristic makes such support incompatible with the OECD definition of development aid. However the interest rate is very competitive and the loans also entailed a long ‘grace period’.

Qi Shi, Drought, Cunene. Residents line up to fetch water during a drought in Angola's southern province Cunene.

The China-Angola relationship in this frame has been qualified as a marriage of convenience. On the Angolan side, the elite managed to finance its reconstruction plan, without the embarrassment of political reforms. On the Chinese side, national companies found both energy resources and external markets. Politically, the rationale displayed for the Angola model is to fulfill the development need of both countries on an equal footing. Presenting itself as a developing country, China criticizes the so-called disinterested help of developed countries and affirms it can achieve ‘Mutual Benefit, Common Victory’ (huli gongying 互利共赢) through its help system.

Why is it changing?

The notion of ‘Angolan model’ or ‘mode’ has been criticized on a theoretical level by several authors. The concept overlooks the existence of precedents for such resource-backed loans, be it those made by western banks to Angola with high interest rates or Chinese experience as a recipient of Japanese aid. The ‘Angola model’ also implies the idea of a Chinese ‘masterplan’, which wrongly minimizes the Angolan agency, that is, the role of the Angolan elite pursuing its personal interests in framing the bilateral relationship. Finally, conceiving the China-Angola relationship as entering the frame of a pre-conceived model amounts to considering the overwhelming presence of the gray and black economy as a mere externality, when it is in fact an early defining characteristic of the bilateral relation that led to massive money embezzlement through the CIF.

The model is also questioned on the field. The China-Angola relationship is undergoing major reconfiguration in the aftermath of the oil price crisis, due to political change and economic factors in both countries.

Monitoring of Chinese loans led to infamous money embezzlement to the profit of the Dos Santos family and their allies. A US report of 2009 revealed the role of the China International Fund, a Hong Kong based investment fund, in a joint vehicle with the oil company Sonangol, in African corruption schemes. In 2011, an IMF note evaluated at 32 billion USD the amount of public money diverted by Sonangol. In a recent study, the Catholic University in Luanda would find around 20 billionn USD that were unaccounted for in the State budget. Massive corruption considerably damages Chinese interests in economic and diplomatic terms. The early 2010s witnessed the dissociation of Beijing from the grey zone economy in a context of fight against corruption, as illustrated by the arrestation of two key figures: Xu Jinghua chairman of the board at CIF and Su Shulin, former manager of Sinopec.

Qi Shi, Sonangol, Luanda. In downtown Luanda, unsanitary apartments face more recent buildings. In the back, the gleaming façade of Sonangol, the national petroleum company.

Qi Shi, International Fair, Luanda. At the International fair the changing model adopted by Chinese enterprises is perceptible. Chuangrun group, initially involved in infrastructure construction now diversifies toward high end electronic products.

Qi Shi, Shops, Luanda. China's cities are awash with shops selling used clothes. Due to the low income of Angolan residents and the fact that there is almost no light industry in the country, the import demand for clothes is particularly large. A large number of Chinese businessmen make their first bucket of gold by collecting used clothes in China and exporting them to Angola.

The sudden drop in the oil price in 2014 has had a tremendous impact on the Angolan side described by a Chinese observer as a sudden economic winter. It caused a shock in public revenue, pushing the government, deprived of a quarter of its income, to cease payment on many of its construction contracts. The abrupt worsening of the economic situation also led to a boom in money-related crimes such as burglary and ransoming, for which Chinese expatriates are privileged targets. Both the economic melancholy and the surge in violence ended up in massive departures in the Chinese community.

The initial model relied on the execution of contracts by Chinese SOEs using massive amounts of their cheap workforce. However, adding up to increasing salary in China, construction workers interviewed affirmed they benefitted a higher security premium for working in the country. According to the vice president of China Angola Chamber of Commerce, massive arrival of Chinese workforce in China came as rather disorganized, and was more of a burden to the local diplomatic authorities. In spite of the small number of staff, they had to deal with criminal cases and criticism of diverting job opportunities from the locals. Some bilateral organization representatives call for a quality shift in Chinese immigration. As the Angolan government became increasingly unable to pay Chinese SOEs for big infrastructure contracts, some Chinese entrepreneurs redirected their activity to tackle local customers, engaging in wholesale and retail. The activity of Chinese private actors is encouraged by official authorities.

What is happening now?

Although both sides have announced a change in model since the early 2010s, it remained nothing more than a posture until recently. In 2016, CEXIM loans for the financing of Caio port and ICBC for Caculo Cabaça power station contributed to feeding the financial arrangements of the children of the president. Nonetheless, Joao Lourenço, elected president in August 2017 and comparing himself to Deng Xiaoping, surprised the international opinion by expelling Filomeno and Isabel dos Santos of their official positions. He gives encouraging signs for the economic management of the country: rationalization of public expenditures and revenues, new exchange rate policy, ambitious reforms of the legislative framework, resumption of discussions with the IMF.

Qi Shi, Soft Power, Luanda. The question of cultural exchange and soft power is also raised in the current evolution in relation between the two countries. Fostering interpersonal links and mutual understanding are goals set by the new Confucius Institute with Agostinho Neto University and scholarships devolved to Angolan students and young professionals.

能熬过这个冬天，谁就能吃到肉 “He who survives through winter will get to eat meat”. As a former engineer at CITIC crudely sums up, the Chinese enterprises that have not left the country hope to gain a decisive advantage in their long-term presence when the economy starts again. They benefit from political rapport de force between the two countries that allows for a privileged treatment of Chinese nationals: the signing of an agreement for an accelerated visa procedure is an example. In addition, their reorientation is facilitated by a strong network and in-depth knowledge of the country. Along the expressway outside Luanda, where retailers now settle, stand several major Chinese-made projects: Kilamba Kiaxi town, 11st November stadium, Agostinho Neto university.

About the Photographer

Qi Shi (啟石) was born in Chinese countryside Bengbu, Anhui province. He studied international trade at Nanjing Audit University during 2009-2013. After that, he worked for 4 years at the Changrun Group in Luanda, Angola, a Chinese private enterprise under transition. Relentlessly taking pictures during his free time and deeply marked by Angolan changing landscapes, Qi Shi wishes to move toward documentary filmmaking. He has a strong desire to express, hoping to make people pay more attention to the broader word.

‘The Port and the Image’ – Xu Hao: When Objects Become Language

Xu Hao, Water (tobacco) pipe, from the series Goods, Decades and Sense Shift, 2017

‘The Port and the Image: Documenting China’s Harbor Cities’ is a photographic project focused on documenting China’s ports and the cities that surround them, curated by He Yining. The goal of this project is to use art to explore the current situation of China’s port cities, and the issues that have arisen during their development in an increasingly integrated global economy. The first phase of this project involves eight photographers from different backgrounds and different fields. Each of them are paired up with a city and a port to focus on – Ningbo, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Dalian, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Today we explore Shanghai through Xu Hao’s work on old collected and photographed objects.

“Goods, Decades, and Sense Shift” is a meticulously planned study into typology. When Shanghai first opened as a treaty port in 1843, directly after the Opium Wars, power dynamics changed and business began to shift. Globalization divided the workforce and lifestyles were altered as urbanization began to creep in. This history is written in the stories of these everyday objects. A surplus of mass produced products, piling up and spreading out to the edge of existence until they fall apart. Going through these objects is a reminder that those who lived here through that time have a shared experience –a past that is now mixed together with the present in typewriters, snuff bottles, and leather attaché’s. Their story is defined by these parts: objects that provide an unbiased record of events that collide to create contemplations on culture.

Xu Hao, Sculpture, from the series Goods, Decades and Sense Shift, 2017

Xu Hao, Electricity Meter, from the series Goods, Decades and Sense Shift, 2017

In “Objects, Decades and Sense Shift”, artist Xu Hao went to the giant secondhand furniture market on the outskirts of Pudong to photograph objects that have been left behind. Getting to know a city through its secondhand market is a fragmentized way of looking at its memories, past trends and the transformations it has undergone. Items found at secondhand markets in a harbor city are also indirect portrayals of the history of foreign trade and cultural assimilation.

Xu Hao, Accordion, from the series Goods, Decades and Sense Shift, 2017

Xu Hao, Borneol, from the series Goods, Decades and Sense Shift, 2017

Xu Hao, Phonograph record, from the series Goods, Decades and Sense Shift, 2017

In his work, Xu Hao takes forgotten objects out of their original contexts in order to collect, categorize and process them typologically. The old-fashioned, the classic, the foreign-made, the excessive…everything was spread out evenly on a common surface, forming a diagram where each individual occupies a spot within its own history and time. Like the process of combining what we see with its deeper significance, we are then able to go back to the symbols manifested on the surface of an object from this mysterious structure.

Xu Hao, Mask, from the series Goods, Decades and Sense Shift, 2017

The crane on the turtle, from the series Goods, Decades and Sense Shift, 2017

Here, what gets one’s attention is not the way an object is identified (e.g. through its craftsmanship, color, shape or period, etc.), but the way the object becomes a subjective language itself instead of remaining an object waiting to be described. As Foucault wrote in The Order of Things (1966), “it [language] has been set down in the world and forms a part of it, both because things themselves hide and manifest their own enigma like a language and because words offer themselves to men as things to be deciphered.” In other words, Xu Hao’s work approaches the history of Shanghai in an indirect but ever-nearing way.

Xu Hao, installation shot,’The Port and The Image’ exhibition, China Port Museum, 2017

“Pagoda” by Lin Shu: A Mystical Experience of Architecture

Wanfotang Flower Pagoda (Liao), Beijing © Lin Shu

In 2017, I started working on the “Pagoda” series. It was all very sudden, as if the inspiration came to me instantly, consequently I realized that the topic deserved in-depth research. The process of photographing pagodas means reconsidering and rediscovering photography. In my photographic pursuit, I gradually slide into abstraction and emptiness but the pagoda pulls me back to the real world.

The reason why I am so engrossed with Pagodas’ traditional architecture is my ongoing interest in mysticism. When facing the pagoda, I often have the ecstatic feeling that it does not belong to the real world.

Unique and colossal, the building exceeds functional and utilitarian values of architecture. Its value is symbolic, a representation of Buddha and faith. In this sense, it is the material expression of the spiritual, an echo of my own pursuit as a photographer.

Since the series “Toxic”, I have been paying more and more attention to the relationship between Chinese traditional art and contemporary photography. However, I do not wish to use photography as a tool to reevaluate or validate ancient Chinese texts according to Western academic standards, nor do I wish to create photographic icons emulating the “traditional image”. My wish is to express through photography a sense of spirituality that is running through my body, feelings, perception, aesthetic and life experience. I don’t consider my process as a method but as an experience, the pure synthesis of the spirit and the individual.

This realization has deeply shaped me and raised several issues.

Photographing the Pagoda brought me back to material concerns, letting go of records, maintaining contact with reality and a curiosity towards the world. Discovering the world is photography’s most valuable purpose, and recording these discoveries is photography’s intrinsic quality Ⅹ no matter how hard today’s photography tries to ignore this fact.

It also evokes the dawn of photography, when amateurs full of dreams and enthusiasm, recorded every corner of the world. Like them, I want to cast a pure and clumsy gaze at the pagodas, a gaze out of place and outside of time.

Jiuding Pagoda (Song), Shandong Province, Jinan © Lin Shu

Xiude Temple Pagoda (Song), Hebei Province, Quyang County © Lin Shu

Xingshengjiao Temple Pagoda (Northern Song), Shanghai © Lin Shu

Simen Pagoda (Sui), Shandong Province, Jinan © Lin Shu

Dingzhou Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda (Song), Hebei Province, Ding County © Lin Shu

Chongzhou White Pagoda (Sui), Sichuan Province, Chongzhou © Lin Shu

Guanghui Temple Pagoda (Song, Jin), Hebei Province, Zhending County © Lin Shu

Yingxianfou Temple Shijiamu Pagoda (Liao), Shanxi Province, Shuozhou © Lin Shu

Ganying Temple Pagoda (Jin), Shanxi Province, Quwo County © Lin Shu

Huzhu Pagoda (Southern Song), Shanghai © Lin Shu

Liuli Pagoda of Lingguang Temple (Tang), Shanxi Province, Linfen © Lin Shu

Lingtong Wanshuobao Pagoda (Yuan), Beijing © Lin Shu

Pagoda of Huqiu Yunyan Temple (Song), Jiangsu Province, Suzhou © Lin Shu

Xiqiao Tianhou Palace (Ming), Fujian Province, Longyan © Lin Shu

Langzhai Pagoda (Song), Shanxi Province, Anze County © Lin Shu

Yinshan Talin – Foujue Dachanshi Pagoda (Jin), Beijing © Lin Shu

Xumi Pagoda (Tang), Hebei Province, Zhengding County © Lin Shu

Feihong Pagoda (Ming), Shanxi Province, Hongtong County © Lin Shu

Fragrant Hills’ Liuli Pagoda (Qing), Beijing © Lin Shu

Article published with the support of the Embassy of France in China

In Shenyang and Chengdu, The Strange Aesthetic of “Flat-Pack” City

Massive urban growth is one of the global features of our time. Working as a photographer since 2000 I’ve been lucky to have photographed in the regions at the forefront of this growth; the Middle East, India and China.

In this project I take a particular look at two Chinese city centres that I was able to spend some extended time in. My wife’s family are from Shenyang and having visited there many times since 2004 I have watched the city change dramatically. Vast areas of Communist era low-rise buildings that clustered around the central square where being demolished neighbourhood by neighbourhood. On each visit another neighbourhood would be gone or in the process of being demolished. With the areas being cleared for shopping malls and new apartments, they were then lined with advertising hoardings displaying luxury products, idealised lifestyles, extravagant cityscapes and often just random, positive slogans and colours.

Watching this unfold over a number of visits I began to photograph the changes. With the project kickstarted in Shenyang, on another family visit to Chengdu I noticed the same wholesale changes happening and spent the week walking the streets adding to the series.

I’ve visited many growing cities in China and photographed their striking features – skylines, extravagant architecture and forests of new high-rise housing. However, spending time in Shenyang and Chengdu with people who lived in these areas all their life, I felt I was beginning to get a glimpse from the inside. I was noticing not just the cities growth but their radical remodelling into hubs of commerce.

Developing an aspirational consumerism and tapping into the wealth of newly affluent urban population has been a key feature of China’s economic development. This was abundantly evident on the streets. The ubiquitous advertising hoardings, with their bright consumerist aesthetic of malls, lifestyles and products were announcing a new way of life that was unfurling itself over the past. Viewing the hoardings as borders between one way of life of life and another, I started to take two sets of photographs exploring what was in front and what was behind.

The work is displayed here as diptychs capturing a significant time of change for these two cities. One set of photographs peek through the gaps in the hoardings, mixing the bright foreground detail with the reality of the sites behind. Distance, scale and detail are packed into tight compositions that capture the punchy and vivid impact of change. The wider street views show the front public space with city inhabitants going about their business in an unsettling, often chaotic, limbo space. The temporary mess of the streets and infrastructure emphasising the upheaval of the inhabitants homes, workplace and way of life.

Some works from this series will be shown in the second Chapter of ‘Look’ Photo Biennial, Liverpool in Oct 2019.

Construction beginning on Central Square, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Cranes & Shopping Mall, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Water leakage from a building site, Chengdu © Tony McAteer

The rubble of a demolished neighbourhood, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Architectural rendering of CCTV building & old military coat, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Neighbourhood being demolished for shopping mall development & Street trader, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Rubbish pouring through a hoarding, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

New mall coming soon, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Bench sitters - young, old, business, police, affluent, poor, Chengdu © Tony McAteer

Old building with pagoda design demolition, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Old business & shop fronts, Chengdu © Tony McAteer

Businessmen on a site visit, Chengdu © Tony McAteer

New mall, landscaping & moped couple, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Bus stops and cyclist, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

New mall construction, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Isolated building, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

Cyclist and apartment construction site, Shenyang © Tony McAteer

‘The Port and the Image’ – The Diffuse Radiation of Guangzhou’s Trade History

Chen Wenjun, Whampoa Anchorage, Guangzhou, from the series Wandering Through Guangzhou After 2000 years, 2017

According to “The History of the Port of Guangzhou,” Panyu (Guangzhou’s original name) began to grow as a port city in the Qin and Han dynasties. As Guangzhou developed, it became China’s first real port city. During the Han dynasty, China’s foreign trade reached new heights, and ships from Guangzhou, Xuwen, and Hepu sailed toward South Asia, traversing the Indian ocean to form what was to become the Maritime Silk Road. This became a crucial element in establishing communication and exchange between the civilizations of the East and the West.

From the Three Kingdoms period to the Sui dynasty, the international shipping industry began to develop; it was during this period that Guangzhou became the epicenter of all of China’s foreign trade. In the Tang dynasty, Guangzhou entered a new golden age. It blossomed into China’s largest port, and was one of the largest ports in the world at the time. Over this period, porcelain, silk, paper, copper, iron, gold, and silver all flowed out of Guangzhou as exports.

As a result of its unique geographic conditions, Guangdong was the earliest port city in China, and maritime trade has made a huge impact on the development of the city from the very beginning. When asked about their profession, a lot of people in Guangzhou today would say they work “in business”, yet the meaning of this common phrase is in fact so ambiguous that it almost suggests a sense of mystery. Out of curiosity, Jiang Yanmei starts to examine the current business environment in Guangzhou in her documentary through the eyes of three foreigners doing business in the city: Vasha the Russian student reseller, Mauro the Italian shoe trader, and Felly the African businessman. In the montage of images of these men and the local wholesale markets, the lurking relationships between people and places and between newcomers and the native population begin to surface.

Jiang Yanmei, video clip, from the series Three Foreigners Doing Business in Guangzhou, 2017
Jiang Yanmei, video clip, from the series Three Foreigners Doing Business in Guangzhou, 2017
Jiang Yanmei, video clip, from the series Three Foreigners Doing Business in Guangzhou, 2017

Unlike Jiang Yanmei, whose work expands on the present, Chen Wenjun chooses to start from the maritime trade history of Guangzhou. He combines historical materials with the current changes in the appearance and functions of the Port of Guangzhou to record the causal relationship between trade and development. The materials he uses, from the navigation chart that is believed to show the route between Shizimen and Shisanhang (Shizimen was an important waterway to Guangzhou that provided anchorage for foreign merchant ships, and Shisanhang, also known as the “Thirteen Factories”, was the name of the original thirteen trading posts in Guangzhou and later became a general name for foreign trade businesses), to detailed descriptions of and users’ instructions for export porcelain, are all important references to Guangzhou’s significance as part of the Maritime Silk Road and correlate vertically with the development of the city. As seen in the 1665 copperplate panorama of Guangzhou, the map of the city was shaped into a claustrophobic golden bell and stood at once in harmony with and in opposition against the numerous ships down the coast.

Chen Wenjun, Old map of Guangzhou, from the series Wandering Through Guangzhou After 2000 years, 2017

Chen Wenjun, export porcelain, from the series Wandering Through Guangzhou After 2000 years, 2017

Looking back now, this sight may have anticipated the unknown and dramatic changes maritime trade would bring to the ancient port city in the coming centuries, and they will also find their contemporary response in Chen Wenjun’s portrayals of industrial traces, bridges under construction and the modern look of the port.

Chen Wenjun, Nansha Free Trade Zone, Guangzhou from the series Wandering Through Guangzhou After 2000 years, 2017

Chen Wenjun, Nansha Free Trade Zone, Guangzhou, from the series Wandering Through Guangzhou After 2000 years, 2017

Chen Wenjun, Shagongbao Village Pier, Guangzhou, from the series Wandering Through Guangzhou After 2000 years, 2017

Chen Wenjun, Guangzhou Water Bus, from the series Wandering Through Guangzhou After 2000 years, 2017

Reframing Chinese Villages

On June 6th, 2019, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China published the latest collection of a long list of Traditional Villages on its website ^[1]. In total, 6,819 small settlements now boast this title, each one benefiting from a three million Yuan subsidy (440,000 USD) that comes with the nomination.

The list of Chinese Traditional Villages is not the only existing list, as the creation of national records of model villages has become a key feature in domestic practices. There are lists of Historical and Cultural, Ecological, Eco-Civilisation, Beautiful, and Beautiful Leisure villages, to name a few.

Why such attention to villages in China?

Toward a Socialist, Beautiful, Ecological Rural Environment

In recent years, discourses promoting the enhancement and development of villages and small towns have become a recurrent theme all over the world. Whilst certainly part of a global phenomenon, the experience in China presents unique characteristics.

The focus on small Chinese settlements has complex motivations. On the one hand is a longing for rural economic development and improvement of people’s livelihoods; on the other hand, is a desire to acknowledge and promote Chinese culture, and reverse environmental degradation. All these priorities respond to both national and global strategies.

In the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, the coastal cities accomplished their radical development and modernisation process, expanding the national economy but also raising disparities. At the beginning of the 2000s, discontent due to increasing inequalities between rural and urban areas drew the government’s attention. A critical turning point was 2002, with the leadership change from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao. For the first time, at the 16^th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it was declared that the countryside was key to achieving the national goal of a moderately prosperous society (小康社会) and that socio-economic development should incorporate urban and rural areas alike ^[2]. Since then, the gaze of the nation has progressively tackled what has been collectively known as the three rural issues (三农问题): agriculture, villages, and farmers. The “unbalanced and inadequate development” has been set as the new national contradiction to be solved, and a clear goal has been laid out: “We must ensure that by the year 2020, all rural residents living below the current poverty line have been lifted out of poverty.” ^[3]

The Chinese development model is closely tied to the urbanisation process, and the law clearly states that “urbanisation is the only way to modernisation” ^[4]. Thus, the problem of developing rural and marginal areas is an issue of urbanising the countryside (mostly mountainous terrain), and, therefore, the tools proposed to address the imbalance inevitably refer to urban planning criteria. Spatial planning measures have been defined: initially, the approach imposed standard quantitative urban-like models, but in time it has progressively transformed into a more holistic territorial perspective, in which cultural and natural resources contribute to securing a higher quality of development.

At the same time, under the guidance of President Xi Jinping, the role of culture in China has grown at a pace comparable only to its economic development. Culture is deemed crucial in educating the population and gaining international prestige to match the already undisputed financial position of the country. Hence, the official narrative affirms the continuity of a glorious past, emphasising the global relevance of Chinese millenary civilisation.

Indeed, the Chinese countryside has played a crucial role in the history of the country, which has been an agricultural empire for millennia. Incredible remnants of this past still mark the land: rural settlements, agricultural terracing, old postal and commercial routes, and hydraulic works. Villages that have escaped radical ideologies and modernisation processes conserve a cultural heritage that is a precious resource for the Beautiful China (美丽中国) promoted by national slogans nowadays. This is especially true for remote villages – usually the poorest ones in a market system – that have remained marginal to historical reversals and transformations.

A further piece to complete this complex yet fascinating picture is the environmental concerns embraced by the government. This new matter has already materialised in a coherent corpus of measures including the establishment of the new Ministry of Ecology and Environment, policies for the protection of eco-systems, environment taxes, and massive investments in renewable energies. Since 2012, when the expression Ecological Civilisation (生态文明) was first officially pronounced, it has become increasingly important in the national discourse and is now the main ideological framework of contemporary Chinese environmental policies, as well as “the most significant Chinese state-initiated imaginary of our global future” ^[5]. Today, the critical role played by villages, small towns, and their vast surrounding areas is acknowledged as a complementary counterpart to growing cities. China is now developing its own methods of rural revitalisation (乡村振兴) through investing in rural economies as providers of quality environmental services and leisure.

All these policies converge on small settlements and marginal areas: rural economic development, cultural soft power, and the horizon of an ecological civilisation.

Urban planning measures

Planning strategies began operation by rationalising villages and regional layout. Scattered villages merged into larger and more compact settlements through the demolition of hamlets, relocation of villagers, and consolidation of primary farmland. Governmental campaigns called for the rapid provision of essential infrastructure and public facilities including roads, power grid, telecommunications, sewerage, waste collection, schools, health clinics, post offices, etc. (according to the 2006 strategy Building a New Socialist Countryside, 社会主义新农村建设).

In 2007, the Urban Planning Law became the Urban and Rural Planning Law (城乡规划法), and for the first time, every administrative village was required to formulate a 20-year master plan for redevelopment. Furthermore, an urban-rural integration strategy was put forward, incorporating rural territory into the spatial planning regime ^[6]. Provinces were asked to define strategic regional plans, outlining the relationships among settlements of different sizes. Small inland cities were planned to become centres for networks of smaller settlements and clusters of villages, providing the services which marginal areas lack.

The role of the heritage and the tourism lever

In the span of a few years, the interest in the cultural and natural aspects of villages and rural areas has steadily grown. The heritage narrative, based on contemporary national needs, has been reconceptualised to broaden its scope and fit the priority of poverty eradication ^[7].

Thus, the Chinese approach to rural heritage remains focused on tourism promotion to meet the need for rapid development. It is no coincidence that in March 2018, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism was established through merging two formerly separate entities, the Ministry of Culture and China National Tourism Administration. Tourism is considered a means to fight poverty by redistributing private resources from coastal cities to inland regions. A list of Beautiful Leisure Villages (中国美丽休闲乡村) and experimental zones for Rural Tourism, established by the Ministry of Agriculture, pioneered this strategy and recently, at the end of July 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism launched a further group of Key Rural Tourism Villages (全国乡村旅游重点村名单). In remote, rural, and ethnic regions, tourism is introduced as a modernising tool to promote social and cultural development and to better integrate minorities within the nation-state ^[8]. Large-scale tourism investment companies are invited to act as engines of rural development, but this strategy often results in homologated models of intervention, with little benefits for the inhabitants and potential controversial effects that have generated tensions with local communities in the past.

Beyond tourism, the attention to the countryside and the increasing importance of culture and environment have favoured a shift in the way villages are valued, leading to a substantial leap forward in the heritage discourse. As a result, the rural legacy has been identified in a larger body of elements: heritage is no longer limited to monuments or unique pieces of architecture, instead extending to urban fabrics, landscapes, and complex environmental systems, encompassing spatial arrangements, agricultural practices, social structures, construction technologies, and philosophies of life. All these attributes have been incorporated into official discourses, local policies, and planning mechanisms that are now beginning to be implemented.

Ever-greater numbers of villages are being included in lists for their promotion and enhancement.

In 2000, two small settlements in southern Anhui Province, Hongcun and Xidi, were declared World Heritage Sites ^[9]. The event was a pivotal moment, as it was the first time that the historical and cultural value of a village in China was recognised at such a level.

In 2003, the first record of Chinese Historic and Cultural Villages (中国历史文化名镇和村) was published, its contents including settlements boasting relevant historical architecture. The list of Traditional Villages (中国传统村落) followed in 2012. This new list expanded the scope of the earlier group by promoting a higher number of settlements, based on the rationale that “although some villages might not have many ancient buildings, they embody, in their layout, in their location, and many intangible aspects, the cultural elements that reflect the essence of Chinese culture” ^[10]. Protecting the heritage of these villages is declared to be a means for enhancing the awareness and confidence in the value of Chinese culture, promoting the multiplicity and diversity of Chinese cultural expressions (including all officially identified ethnic groups), and leading the economic development of rural areas. Respective of the fact that the country is “a thousand years old farming civilisation, and traditional villages have preserved the cultural roots that stemmed from the countryside” ^[11], the Traditional Villages list conveys an idea of heritage drawn on this specific interpretation of Chinese ‘farming’ culture, and is finalised to create a vision for the future in continuity with its rural past.

A new environmental perspective

Parallel to the focus on culture, the attention to nature is represented by the Ecological Villages (国家级生态村) list created by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2006, and in its updated version the 2014 Eco-Civilisation Villages list (国家生态文明建设示范村). These lists integrate concepts of environmental protection with China’s rural culture to address a new model of urbanisation focused on the nexus between villages, agriculture, and rural landscape. The heritage of farming culture is considered an asset to ensure food security and high-quality products. It has the potential to lead the shift from an economy of subsistence to one based on commercial exchanges while helping the preservation of rural landscapes and ecological environments.

At the same time, the growing number of listed settlements has drawn attention to the specificities of traditional rural settlements, especially in terms of regional and local characteristics and ethnic expressions (as many ethnic minorities reside in remote villages). China is a vast territory with a multitude of landforms and regional climates where diverse cultures have developed a rich range of agricultural patterns and different settlement models. Consequently, since 2014, national planning tools have incorporated an approach encouraging customised planning interventions that take into account distinctive natural, geographical, historical, and cultural conditions to avoid the homologation of practices (National New Urbanisation Plan 2014–2020).

The lists of model villages were conceived independently from each other and are managed, individually or jointly, by different government departments (e.g. Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Ecology and Environment). They also respond to diverse scopes such as infrastructural and agricultural modernisation, heritage preservation, tourism promotion, environmental improvement. Yet, regarded together, they can be considered pieces of a much more comprehensive strategy based on a holistic idea of territory (eco-system), in which cultural, historical, and natural components are mobilised in efforts of rural revitalisation, looking for a way to secure a better quality of life for all–urban and rural–Chinese citizens.

Notes

^[1] http://www.mohurd.gov.cn/wjfb/201906/t20190620_240922.html

^[2] Ye, Xingqing. 2009. “China’s Urban-Rural Integration Policies,” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 38 (4): 117-143.

^[3] Xi, Jinping. 2017. Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

^[4] The State Council of the P.R. of China. 2014. 国家新型城镇化规划 [National New Urban Planning 2014-2020], Beijing.

^[5] Hansen, Mette Halskov, Hongtao Li, Rune Svarverud. 2018. “Ecological civilization: Interpreting the Chinese past, projecting the global future”. Global Environmental Change 53 (2018) 195-203.

^[6] Bray, David. 2013. “Urban Planning Goes Rural: Conceptualizing the ‘New Village’.” China Perspectives 2013 (3): 53–62.

^[7] Lincoln, Toby, and Rebecca Madgin. 2018. “The Inherent Malleability of Heritage: Creating China’s Beautiful Villages”. International Journal of Heritage Studies 24 (1): 1–16.

^[8] Cornet, Candice. 2015. “Tourism Development and Resistance in China”. Annals of Tourism Research 52: 29–43.

^[9] https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1002

^[10] The State Council Information Office of the PRC (SCIO). 2013. 国新办举行改善农村人居环境工作等情况发布会 [The State Council Information Office Held a Press Conference on the Improvement of Rural Living Environment], Beijing (translation by the author).

^[11] Ibid

“Forest” by Yan Wang Preston: Grafting Old Trees to Young Cities

The Word for World is Still Forest*. In the age of anthropocene, the violent destruction of forests is one of the defining characteristics of our societies. Interestingly, forests are also deeply desirable for rapidly expanding urban environments around the world.

In the photographic project Forest, I spent eight years (2010-2017) investigating the politics of recreating forests and the ‘natural’ environment in new Chinese cities. In Chongqing, China’s largest metropolis with thirty-million people, a policy of having a ‘Forest City’ is implemented. While saplings are a common choice, hundreds and thousands of mature trees are also purchased and transplanted into the city to make ‘readymade’ forests. Often the trees become trophies, decorations and a commodity to raise property prices with.

Their prices depend on their rarity, size and age. Their origins include demolished villages, newly deforested areas and beyond. Their futures are uncertain.

In Haidong Development Zone, Dali, Yunnan Province, a small rural area is being urbanised systematically to create ‘an international leisure town and an ecology model town’. In doing so, the top soil of the entire area is being replaced by a type of red semi-artificial soil, which forms the base for introduced, mostly non-indigenous plants, including thousands of mature trees. Meanwhile, green plastic netting is used to cover everything unappealing to the eye, from construction waste to disused quarries. The town’s objective here has shifted from an ‘ecological’ concern to a cosmetic one, of trying to be visually green. By 2017, seven years into its construction, Haidong is still a ‘ghost’ town with no permanent residents

I started this project in Chongqing, by following the developments of the transplanted old trees, the concrete city and its people for eight years, documenting the changes, dramas and lives in the city. I then extended the project to Haidong, capturing the bizarre and wildly-coloured ecology-recovery landscapes. On the way, a series of stories are collected and narrated, that raise questions about the complexity of urban reforestation and nature re-construction in the contemporary era.

Forest won the First Prize, Syngenta Photography Award in 2017 and has been published as a monograph by Hatje Cantz in 2018.

*This sentence is borrowed from the book title by Anna-Sophie Springer (Berlin: K.Verlag, 2017).