Qingdao

 I’m Australian, we have a national obsession with sport, we cling to the coastline and we have an issue with alcohol. What does Qingdao have to offer? China’s most famous brewery, decent swimming beaches (though more Melbourne then Noosa), and big stadiums which I was not around for a weekend to see how they are used, although I did meet a former gymnast still staying fit on Number 1 Bathing Beach.

What sets Qingdao apart is its geography and early colonial history. In many ways the coastline of rugged textured stone headlands nestling bathing beaches is not that different to many areas in Australia. I did not find that Qingdao was unfamiliar in the way that Gaungzhou, or Jinan is. Qingdao is not as old as most Australian capitals, with the exception of Canberra. It’s founding was part of Germany’s attempt to keep up with the rest of Europe, by having colonies. History shows this was not a great idea long term. From this period the city has several sections of German buildings, both early 20^th century and modernist. The hills and headlands add a visual relief to the city that the river and inland cities do not have. 

Qingdao is wedding photography city. At every near every place we visited, except Number One Bathing Beach there are women in flouncy inappropriate attire, and men in white and pink suits…. Pink? It is always interesting to watch another country interpret and change things held dear in one’s own culture, I’m sure most Chinese are horrified at what passes as Chinese food in the west… as I am at the wedding photography.  I was a wedding photographer for ten years, there are rules about shooting weddings. Rule one is never, ever, under no circumstances let your bride to see another bride, or else it is bad luck. So on seeing another bride we would steer our bride away. Obviously this rule has been abandoned here. I have photos with up to ten flustered brides and nine frazzled grooms, I am guessing that one went absent without leave or maybe with leave. Thinking about it I didn’t see a couple being photographed on Loushan, wonder if it is off limits too?

Qingdao is home to three important Chinese brands that are changing perceptions of ‘made in China’. My most gracious thanks, to the public relations team at Tsingtao Brewing, for allowing us freedom of the floor in the brewing room and the bottling lines. We made great photographs thanks to your trust in us, and you made me forever a fan of your product. Other brands can learn from this example, providing you have nothing to hide. My apologies to Hisense whom I learnt too late was based in Qingdao, you sponsor a indoor stadium in my city. I would love to photograph your production line on a future trip.

I would like to express my thanks to the Dept of Information who trusted us to see their city, often unsupervised. I would like to thank our interpreters and the random people I met along the way, those who tried to talk to me, those whom posed for photographs or let me make photographs of them, it is in your honour I present my photographs of your city.

impressions of Changzhou

All experiences are mediated by the circumstance, and I feel it's important to give a background to this group of photographs. We were asked to make images of Changzhou how we saw it, in our style. We were hired because rather then commercial shooters we are 'artists', that is many of us had long CVs of photo media shows, two of us having just completed Masters of Arts looking at aspects of China and photography. We were briefed on the previous projects and their short comings, that is the western businessmen and politicians were not suitably impressed with the publications. So the way forward was seen to be to get foreigners to make the photographs thus (in a logic jump) the work would appeal to foreigners. What struck me about the books of Changzhou in the past is that they feature the built environment and almost no people at all.

For me a city is people in a geographic location with a history and a built environment. It is the people who come first they are the keepers of the memory and the historic narratives of the place. The built environment is the place where the narratives have happened.

What happened to me in Changzhou, was a difference in culture I had not yet encountered, let me explain. There is a Chinese way of doing thing and there are western ways of doing things. For a government official hosting is very important and must be done right. The Chinese way involves never leaving your guests, making sure they are cared for as long as they are reasonably expected to be out of their hotel rooms, and they are to be fed, spectacularly. For me, I will arrive in a city, go to the ‘down town’ area and see what is there. I like to randomly meet people, and get a feel for the city. This has been my way since I was a teenager exploring Brisbane. All the cities I have visited since I’ve never have I had more then a guidebook and a couple of addresses of bars to start with. Some of my random meetings turn into friendships that last a lifetime and these friends show me their city. Not the tourist sites but the daily life of what it means to be in that city for them. Needless to say this creates some frustration on both sides.  Interestingly the day that I decided that it was not worth pushing to see the city in my way, our hosts began offered us three choices during most sessions which seemed to have an eye to our requests made before arriving.

There were a number of things on the list of ‘must do’ and people we ‘must see’. Politics is about pleasing people and we were 6 foreign and 2 Chinese photographers who had come in a blaze of publicity to see the city with new eyes. We had three full time photographers documenting us, along with different reporters and photographers on a daily basis. These ‘must sees’ like the Dinosaur Park, Yan Chang, for instance were fantastic, as is the park life in the four parks I visited. Each of us had our own list of things to see, on mine was being imbedded with a family each day, we did get a family each for a Sunday afternoon, which gave each of a us the chance of living like a middle class Changzhouee or would it Changzhouer? A hospital for a birth, well ask for the moon (as Bobby says) and you’ll get something, I got the famous Chinese Medicine hospital, for only 90mins photography time, but really happy with the work, I made there. My spectacular achievement was asking for a factory that made big things. Bobby and a Kenza had already visit a car factory, which turned out to be the Research and development centre, so on our last day together, our hosts found a tractor factory that would give us permission to photograph. In one site there is the history of the Communist Party period to date. Established in 1952 it still using many of the buildings that where built then, including an office that is exquisite 1950s geometric design. It also has completely state of the art assembly lines. It is this photographer’s heaven, including my themes of men and masculinity, as well as my history working in sheet metal. If the Changzhou Dongfeng Agricultural Machinery Group would like to produce a book recording this moment in time, my hand is up!

Of course this essay is meant to be about how my experience of Changzhou and how I saw the city. So let me make some observations, as a man who stayed in 5 star luxury, ate Chinese banquets for lunch and dinner most days (before needing something my stomach recognised – and could only find Pizza Hut), who suffered low blood sugar with the change of diet and some gastro (one day my stomach will handle China), worked extremely long hours (8 days of 15-6 hours a day) these last two conditions caused some ‘irritability’. The streets are clean, as clean as Sydney or Melbourne much cleaner then Beijing where I am based, this may have to do with Beijing’s demotion of entire communities on it fringes and the dust it creates and the topsoil lost. There is not the constant guttural sound of people bring up phlegm and spitting, which I am still not coping with in Beijing. The men’s toilet floors are dry, now this observation I thought would be (for men) a given anywhere, but in my travels in China It would seem that it is remarkable the many men do not have wet shoes and jeans coming out of the toilet. I do have several photos of the men’s toilets to prove this point but they did not make it through the selection process. Chengzhou is couth, civilised and polite, it seems to have all the amenities I expect in a Chinese city without the rough edges. I just don’t know if there is a decent western restaurant…

http://garriemaguire.com/Changzhou