China Cultural Chronicles October 27, 2012
- sheep on the street (Corban)
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- Juyongguan Great Wall 居庸关长城 (Beijing 北京)
- Remains of Timur's summer palace Oq Saray, Shaxrisabs, Uzbekizstan
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- Do "New Kadampas" need guns for protection?
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Is "Geshela" packing heat under that yellow sheet?
What does the "Third Buddha" carry...a 357 magnum? - Life improving in Laojing village, yet past draws tourists
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下载安装Flash播放器Local farming families try out new exercise equipment, part of provincial government initiatives to improve facilities in rural areas.
Nature is harsh in Laojing village, one of the poorest areas in Shanxi province. Founded at the foot of the Taihang Mountains, throughout most of its history it was not only an extreme, arid land - it was very hard to get to in the first place.
The village has 151 wells dug by hand by several generations over a hundred years in the quest for water. The desperate search cost dozens of lives.
A large project begun by provincial authorities in 2009 now provides tap water throughout rural Shanxi, but Laojing's wells remain crucial to the village - as a popular tourist draw that attracts visitors from large cities nationwide.
As it becomes increasingly modern, the past continues to set Laojing apart.
"Television, mobile phone service and land telephones are now accessible in the village, and we also have roads through to outside areas and running water to the houses," said a villager.
"But we receive more than 100 visitors at a time who want to stay in houses with stone walls and slate roofs, tasting local food and experiencing the history," he said.
Blossoming as a tourist destination in remote barren land, Laojing village is a success story in the provincial government's strenuous effort to improve the quality of life in rural areas.
Once-remote parts of Shanxi are now accessible by new roads built by the provincial government that not only facilitate better supplies and services, but also bring increasing numbers of tourists.
Improvements have been made in education, health, transportation, cultural efforts and more social welfare benefits to rural residents.
The Shanxi government spent more than 60 billion yuan ($9.59 billion) since 2009 to repair school buildings and pave roads, as well as helping with the arrival of chain stores and improving cultural sites and fitness amenities.
This year, the government provided 10 preferential polices to farmers, including 3.1 billion yuan in agricultural subsidies, 2 billion yuan more than in 2011.
In addition to financial support, the government has promoted development and improved lives in rural areas by providing 500,000 jobs in the cities and towns and building 440,000 affordable housing units in 2011 alone.
The government is also providing a ton of free coal to each low-income rural household for heating in winter until 2015, benefiting nearly 7 million farmers.
- Calligraphy sculptures set up at West Lake
Kids visit West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Oct 25, 2012, where sculptures of calligraphy were installed. Each piece stands 5 meters tall, and 11 pieces line the banks.
- Terracing agriculture, Tibet 2012
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Terrace farming is used in mountainous or hilly terrain,where there is not enough level or valley land to suppport our version of farming. The hills are cut into level "steps" ,or terraces,which allows farming on land would ortherwise be too hilly to be farmed. The terraces allow the
farmers to plant crops on flat land,where trhe watering and growing of crops is practical. Terracing is found in many countries around the world where hilly terrain and large populations make it essential to utilize all means possible to grow sufficent food.
Highland barley is the primary staple crop. Wheat (for bread and alcohol), potatoes, buckwheat, peas, mustards, dry land rice, corn, red peppers, pumpkins, turnips, radishes and cabbage are also grown. Fruit trees grow in some places. - Chinese Muslims celebrate Corban Festival
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下载安装Flash播放器Muslims pray in a mosque in Xining City, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, Oct. 25, 2012. Chinese Muslims on Thursday celebrated the annual Corban Festival, which is a major Islamic festival showing faith and obedience to Allah. [Xinhua]
- Bamboo suona horn - intangible cultural heritage of Sichuan
A folk artist blows suona horns made of bamboo in Yuehua Township of Dazhu County in Dazhou City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Oct. 24, 2012. Dazhu County abounds with bamboo and enjoys the honor of the "hometown of bamboo" in the eastern Sichuan areas. Bamboo suona horn as the specialty in Dazhu is an intangible cultural heritage of Sichuan. [Xinhua]
- Capturing the art of life
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下载安装Flash播放器Photos and antique newspapers are displayed at Deke Erh's Archive: Oral and Visual Documentary exhibition in Shanghai.
A photography show offers a stroll through a century of memories. Zhang Kun reports in Shanghai.
Contemporary art has no boundary date, says Qiu Zhijie, curator of the 2012 Shanghai Biennale. A special project of the city's most important contemporary art event this year is dedicated to history.
The Zhongshan Park Project is an off-site program of the Shanghai Biennale at Edo Museum in Zhongshan Park, Shanghai, showcasing Deke Erh's photographs and visual documentary.
Deke Erh's Archive: Oral and Visual Documentary opened to the public on Sept 11 and runs through Dec 26.
The museum space is divided into three parts. The patio and front hall feature visual and audio records of traditional crafts and lifestyles from the waterfront town of Zhujiajiao in suburban Shanghai.
One of the two main exhibition rooms features documentaries by the Shanghai American School from 1937-49, and the other presents archives from three prestigious universities in Shanghai in the early half of the 20th century. They are Aurora University, University of Shanghai and St. John's University.
Deke Erh is the pen name of 53-year-old Er Dongqiang, who has worked as a freelance photographer in Shanghai for the past 30 years, documenting the changing landscape of the city. He is also a self-appointed historian, collecting antiques and stories from previous generations.
"Er Dongqiang's career has shown how a photographer has the power to penetrate the dust of history, to reach the darkest and softest parts of our collective memories," Qiu says.
"He started as a photographer and turned into a visual historian. In his work, I found the revival of a tradition, when traveling photographers used to take pictures and write journals alongside."
Through the decades Erh has published 20-30 photo albums at Old China Hand Press, a publishing house in Hong Kong, as well as Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House. Many of his books are about old architecture in Shanghai and other parts of China. A few years ago, he expanded his work to the comprehensive record of the lifestyle and memories of the past.
He opened a photo gallery in Zhujiajiao. In front of it he set up square tables and benches to sell tea. "Traditional big-bowl tea, 1 yuan (16 cents) per cup," says Wu Yuquan, a retiree who helped to manage the teahouse for Erh.
Many old people came to have tea, and their chats inspired Erh to record their stories. Erh and his team interviewed more than 150 people, and learned a lot about traditional professions and crafts that have disappeared in the modern age.
"For example, there was an old way of making mosquito-repellent incense," Wu recalls.
"They would mix sawdust with herbs at a particular proportion, and wrap it up in thin slices of paper - it was done in a very scientific way and would not harm human health."
Even Wu, who is in his 60s and has lived most of his life in Zhujiajiao, found these stories novel.
As he collected antique papers and documents about Zhujiajiao, Ehr was surprised to find the small town hosted as many as 35 newspapers from 1912-49. When he exhibited the antique newspapers in Zhujiajiao, elderly visitors shared their memories of some of the incidents reported.
"We worked more actively than the official archives," says Wu, who worked with Erh at Zhujiajiao. "We live here, and see closely how people age and die, taking their memories with them."
As a photographer, Erh used to feature antique buildings in his work. But in the past decade, more and more old houses were torn down to make room for skyscrapers. He decided to preserve a piece of history and record stories from those who experienced it.
"I want to introduce the idea of oral or individual history," he says. "When the material legacy is gone, the only true evidence of history is the memories of people who lived through it."
One of the exhibition halls showcases the archives from three prestigious colleges in old Shanghai. Erh also put a computer with an Internet connection in the exhibition, inviting the public to provide information about the students in the archives through the Twitter-like micro blog Sina Weibo.
He has flown to the United States to participate in the Shanghai American School alumni reunions, interviewing 86 students and teachers of the school from 1937-49 and collecting more than 800 antique photographs to make the book Deke Erh and Shanghai American School (SAS) Students and Teachers.
"The work just can't wait any longer," Erh says in his studio on Taikang Road in downtown Shanghai. "They are aging, getting frail. Of the few people surviving to tell the story, even fewer are healthy enough to travel to the alumni reunion in China."
Wang Zhengwen, 85, and his British wife Betty Barr took on much of the editing work for the book about SAS. Barr was a SAS student.
"That part of history is rarely mentioned now. But it's important to tell the stories, the friendship between China and the United States and other Western countries, and how expats helped Chinese people in many ways," Wang says, particularly during World War II.
"I couldn't help but shed tears during our work on the book. They suffered as much as we Chinese did, sometimes even worse - my wife Betty, for example, was among many expats who were put into the concentration camps by the Japanese."
The exhibition will go on tour in other cities, such as Xiamen in Fujian province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province and Taiwan. Then, a more extensive version of the exhibition will be presented at Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art after the biennale.
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