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…
