4/06/2008

Ο "Καθρέφτης" της Κίνας... Πίσω από τα Ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα...

The space-age face of new Shanghai

The space-age face of new Shanghai.


airport4 (4k)





Wings, by Foster

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport

It is quite unique, at least on Eikongraphia, to have

an architecture rendering that feature both the building

and its iconography. This is the case with two renderings

of the Beijing Airport that Foster + Partners designed,

already in 2003. The iconography itself – the wings of an

airplane – is not that remarkable, as most airports nowadays

seem to echo the high-tech aerodynamic forms of airplanes.

To feature the building and its iconography in a single image

just illustrates how contextually motivated this iconography is.

Architecture this way becomes almost an act of camouflaging,

the architect a chameleon.

We have seen numerous contextual projects pass by here on

Eikongraphia, such as a bridge next to a bridge in Queens, waves

at the waterfront of Yokohama, and sails in the background of boats

entering the harbor of Sydney.

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport

According to the architects themselves the design of Beijing Airport

refers also to a dragon, a traditional Chinese symbol. In their minimalist

language: “A symbol of place, its soaring aerodynamic roof and

dragon-like form will celebrate the thrill of flight and evoke traditional

Chinese colours and symbols.”

The dragon-iconography has to do with the paint of the interior that

changes from yellow to red as you move to your plane. Without

more recognizable dragon-forms, one cannot really experience

this iconography.

But maybe we have to think in the direction of the east-facing

roof lights “which maximise heat gain from the early morning sun,”

just as the small ‘sails’ of the Law courts in Antwerp, designed

by Richard Rogers, reminded even architecture critics more of the

dragons-teeth or dragon-knobs.

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport

Interesting are also the other designs that were made back in

2003 and that are documented on a China government website.

Browsing through the other projects it struck me that the design by

Foster is by far the most ‘minimal’ in its form. Where others proposed

modules, Foster designed – what appears to be – a single form.

And where others designed different forms after one another,

the design by Foster is symmetrical.

The American blob-architect Gregg Lynn argued with his entry

for the Cardiff Opera House competition that in biology symmetry

is an effect of a lack of parameters. Symmetry is in that way more

‘primitive’ or ‘minimal’ than asymmetry, because you need

parameters to describe an asymmetrical form.

Beijing Airport is, remarkably, symmetrical along two axes.

An airplane, to name just one other object, is only symmetrical

along one axis. This double symmetry says ‘order’,

the real virtue an airport strives for. It’s a super-smart

representation. Mind-blowing.

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport

The project will be finished next year, in 2008, just in time for the

Olympics.

Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport
Foster + Partners - Beijing Airport





People’s Square, Luwan District, Shanghai,
Nearly a quarter of the world’s population live in China, yet the country has less than ten percent of the world’s land, and less than ten percent of that is arable or crop farming land. The rest is mountainous or desert. China’s solution to freeing land for farming is to build as dense as possible; Chinese cities average a remarkable 27,300 people per square





Tibet ...During the Cultural Revolution

Tibet During the Cultural Revolution

The photographs were taken by Woeser (唯色)'s father, a Tibetan People's Liberation Army's officer:-

Tibet During the Cultural Revolution 1
The Red Guards who damaged the Jokhang Temple. Most of them were the students of Lhasa Secondary School. There was a portrait of Mao Zedong. The banner reads: "Completely destroy the old world! We shall be the master of the new world."

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Tibet During the Cultural Revolution 2
The Female Living Buddha and her parents were "criticised and struggled against".

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Tibet During the Cultural Revolution 3
This photograph was shown to a Tibetan, who said: "Look, the windows were broken. There's a big hole in the boy's sleeve. He was even holding a script prepared by some others. Did he really understand what he said? The people around him were so confused. It's like they were manipulated. This is Tibet's Cultural Revolution."

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Tibet During the Cultural Revolution 4
Buddhist classics were burnt outside the Jokhang Temple.

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Tibet During the Cultural Revolution 5
Buddhist statues and ritual objects in the Jokhang Temple were destroyed by the Red Guards.

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Tibet During the Cultural Revolution 6
Tibetan women "revolutionised"

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Tibet During the Cultural Revolution 7
Apparently they were only primary school students. They were not only brandishing the Quotations from Chairman Mao, but also wearing the red armbands, which suggests that they had joined the Red Guards.

*

Images / Source:
Locus Publishing, the publisher of Forbidden Memory:Tibet During the Cultural Revolution (杀劫).

Earlier:
Cultural Revolution in Tibet

Cultural Revolution: Photographs

Rare colour photographs taken in 1966, the year when the Cultural Revolution began:-

Cultural Revolution: Photograph 1
Huge statue of Mao Zedong in a sea of red flags; the Chinese characters "无疆" mean "never die".

Cultural Revolution: Photograph 2
Apparently an assembly of Peking University students; the poster reads: To topple Soviet Revisionism, Quotation from Chairman Mao.

Cultural Revolution: Photograph 3
Giant propaganda poster: soldiers and worker hold the Selected Works of Mao Zedong.

Cultural Revolution: Photograph 4
The Little Red Book, Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Images:
China Radio International / Editor: Chen Lei

Earlier:
The first casualty of Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution in Tibet

Cultural Revolution in Tibet

Cultural Revolution in Tibet, Mao Zedong and Tibetan People
A Tibetan crowd waving the Little Red Book in front of Mao Zedong's portrait; the Revolutionary Committee was established in Tibet during the Cultural Revolution (Image: SingTaoNet)

Earlier:
Chairman Mao: Long live Dalai Lama!

Napping People's Congress

National People's Congress, China, Napping, Sleeping
National People's Congress, Beijing, 2007 (via Wang Xiaofeng)

Link:
The banned photographs from the Liaoning People's Congress

Anti-Rightist Movement: Photos

Anti-Rightist Movement: Photo 1
In 1957, National Day marchers brandished a sign that said "Struggle against the Rightists resolutely".

Anti-Rightist Movement: Photo 2
Zhang Bojun, the then transport minister, was denounced by his colleagues during the Anti-Rightist Movement.

Anti-Rightist Movement: Photo 3
Many intellectuals were "pidou", or criticised and struggled against.

Photos:
Ming Pao

Tattooed Face of Derung Woman, Yunnan

Tattooed Face of Derung Woman, Yunnan
Derung (or Dulong) woman with a tattooed face; Gongshan County, Nujiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province. (Image: Xinhua)

Open Door Firecrackers

According to Dalian's environmental protection department, the post-spring festival holiday "open door firecrackers" (开门炮) produced 500 tons of red rubbish.

Open Firecrackers, Spring Festival, Dalian

Photo:
People's Daily

A Shanxi Family

Shanxi, Chinese New Year
A Shanxi family adding an extra light bulb for their Chinese new year meal; by Natalie Behring (via flickr via China Digital Times)

Yi Shepherd, Sichuan

Yi People, Sichuan
Yi Shepherd - Photographed by Wang Gang in Sichuan; World Press Photo winner (via China.com.cn)

China: a Nation of Mahjong Players

Mahjong in China
School age children in Guiyang, Guizhou, were playing Mahjong during their winter holiday. China Foto Press via 163 News.

China's White House

No. I am talking not about Zhongnanhai in Beijing - but the government building in an obscure town in an obscure province:-

China's White House
The government building of Yingquan District, Anhui, is dubbed by the locals "White House". (Photo: dahe.cn)

Rural School, Anhui, China
A rural school near the "White House".

The Blind In China

Blindly Follows
The Blind In China
Need Only One Man - photographed by Chen Lianyi (via Sina News)

A Typical School Day In Rural China

The Unbearable Lightness

A Typical School Day In Rural China
Photo: bbs.163.com

Earlier:
Rural school in China

People's Republic Of Cycle

China Bike Nation
Once upon a time, China was a bike nation. (via bbs.163.com)

UPDATE:
ESWN dug up the background of this black-and-white photo (arts.tom.com via CN Arts).

Title: The Kingdom of Bicycles
Photographer: Wang Wenlan

During the peak commute hours, uncountable number of bicycles flowed from the hutongs [alleys in Beijing] into the main streets as they move like a huge river across the bridges. This great wall in motion must be one of the wonders of the world! If you are in the middle of it, you can feel that you are moving in a bloodstream - it is warm, it is noisy, it contains endless potential, as if bicycles have soul, pulse and breath. China is a nation on two wheels.

Beijing Tricycle

The Tricycle Man's Burden

Beijing Tricycle
A tricycle on Changan Avenue, Beijing

Photo by Han Meng: The Beijing News Blog

Rural School In China

Rural School, China
Photo by Beitai, Sichuan photographer (via China Digital Times / Fengniao Photography Forum)

It reminds me of this photo.

Four Photojournalists, One Angle

In Central, about 100 people attended a candlelight vigil for Hong Kong-based journalist Ching Cheong last night. It must have been a rather undramatic (at least from the photojournalists' perspective) protest since the big three news agencies and Hong Kong's biggest selling newspaper are all struggling for an unique angle:

Hong Kong Ching Cheong (AFP)
AFP

Hong Kong Ching Cheong (AP)
AP

Hong Kong Ching Cheong (Hong Kong Oriental Daily)
Hong Kong Oriental Daily

Hong Kong Ching Cheong (Reuters 1)
Reuters - 1

Hong Kong Ching Cheong (Reuters 2)
Reuters - 2

Even an outsider like me can understand the pressure to take me-too photos - what if this agency and that newspaper get some really great shots but I miss it? The golden rule therefore seems to be following the crowd and erring on the safe (and unimaginative) side.

* * *

So far I have only taken my Canon EOS 350D with me to record the December 4 Universal Suffrage March and Hong Kong's Anti-WTO Protest. Although the "rice bowl factor" does not apply to citizen journalists, most amateur photographers seemed quite content with taking the me-too photos, particularly the "people mountain people sea" ones.

But what's the point? 99% of amateurs by definition don't have the comparable equipment, resources and experience. Is it not our only competitive advantage that we have no financial and editorial pressure, so that we can take some risks?

Dress Code For "Jiang's Selected Works" Readers

Miao Women In Traditional Costume
Photo: People's Daily Online - Two Miao ladies are reading the Selected Works of Jiang Zemin at a Xinhua Bookstore in Guangxi Rongshui Miao Autonomous County.

What a harmonious society!

Related:
But the publication of the former party chief's masterpiece does not warrant front page coverage or an editorial in the state-owned China Daily.

Chinese Media: A Photoshopaholic's Paradise

Hangzhou Boats Photo, Zhejiang NewspaperThis is the front page of Zhejiang newspaper Today Morning Express. The caption of the Hangzhou boats photo read: Heavy rain hits Hangzhou; hundreds of boats return.

Perhaps it is rather too intellectually challenging for their readers to visualise the return of so many boats - the considerate editors have done a great service to them:

Hangzhou Boats Photo, Zhejiang Newspaper
Why the Chinese people all look the same to me?

(via Wang Xiaofeng)

Tangshan Earthquake Photos

Tangshan Earthquake Photos, Ming Pao30 years on, photos of Tangshan Earthquake, which killed 240,000 people (if you believe the CCP), are still treated as de facto state secret. Hong Kong Ming Pao newspaper publishes today five rare black and white earthquake pictures taken by Li Yaodong, then a Tangshan-based photo-journalist. The images are reportedly restricted to internal use in mainland China.

Tangshan Earthquake Photo 1
Aerial photo: Ruins and tents.

Tangshan Earthquake Photo 2
Eight days after the earthquake, the People's Liberation Army (Northeast Region) arrived in the Tangshan area but the city was 3 km away. Military trucks were blocked by the damaged roads. The army rushed to the city with their spades.

Tangshan Earthquake Photo 3
Earthquake orphans on a train: the city government gave them new clothes and apples; they gave the photographer a big smile.

Tangshan Earthquake Photo 4
Where time stopped.

Tangshan Earthquake Photo 5
A man was recovered alive from the debris "many days" after the quake.

Tiananmen Tank Man

Tiananmen Tank Man, The Simpsons 1/3

The Simpsons travelled to Beijing and Selma Bouvier, Homer Simpson's sister-in-law, was facing down a tank with a big red star. If one is unable to associate the images with the Tiananmen Massacre, there are two possibilities: either one has been living outside China and has never been exposed to news media since 1989, or one is living in China.

Tiananmen Tank Man, The Simpsons 2/3

Tiananmen Tank Man, The Simpsons 3/3

* * *

And thanks to Google China's self-censorship which targets, inter alia, the "Three Ts" (Tiananmen, Taiwan independence and Tibet independence), the "Tiananmen Tank Man" has once again become cartoonist's darling.

Tiananmen Tank Man Cartoon - Google China's Self-censorship

* * *

"I think [Jeff Widener's 'Tiananmen Tank Man' photo (below)] has cost China more in public image than any other single image in modern times," Richard Baum, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, told the Smithsonian Magazine.

Heaven knows if the Tank Man will someday replace Chairman Mao's giant portrait as the symbol of Tiananmen Square. (Or has he?)

Tiananmen Tank Man

Tiananmen Tank Man, The Time Cover
The Tiananmen Tank Man on the cover of the Time Magazine, June 1989.

Photos Of Anti-WTO Protests In Hong Kong

After the violent anti-WTO protests on Saturday ...

A Hong Konger's perspective.

Riot Police Anti-WTO Protests
The longest day
Hong Kong riot police marched across Gloucester Road after all arrested protesters were sent to Kwun Tong, Kowloon. The police looked tired, relieved (one officer even took out a mini digital camera to take some snapshots!) and proud and they cheered "we never lose" (戰無不勝). Hong Kong people and some photo journalists clapped. (December 18, 2005 at about 3 p.m.; Gloucester Road, Wanchai)

* * *

Korean Anti-WTO Protester
Which side are Hong Kong people on?
A Korean anti-WTO protester was holding a cardboard with Chinese characters: "Hong Kong government, release our comrades quickly". Some Hong Kong people shook hands with Korean protesters in Victoria Park, others cheered along the procession route. Some 1,000 anti-protesters had been arrested after the "riots" and many of them are Korean-speaking people. (December 18, 2005, Afternoon; Victoria Park)

* * *

Philippine Anti-WTO Protesters
In your face
The protester wearing a US flag mask from the Philippines came to Hong Kong to join the anti-WTO protests. The Philippines is believed to be one of the relatively pro-America Asian countries. (December 18, 2005, Afternoon; Victoria Park)

* * *

Empty Gloucester Road Anti-WTO Protests
Surreal
The Gloucester Road linking Causeway Bay and Central was empty after the Saturday protests. View from Marsh Road and behind the net installed by the police for the WTO conference. (December 18, 2005 at about 3 p.m.; Marsh Road, Wanchai)

* * *

Mad Cow Disease WTO
Disgrace
A number of Africans in copper on one arm of the scales - detail of Jens Galschiot's sculpture "Mad Cow Disease", which pinpoints that the rich world spending five times the amount of their development aid to subsidise their own agriculture. Now the poorest people are told to wait another decade - a 2013 date for ending agricultural export subsidies is to be set according to the Hong Kong declaration. (December 18, 2005, Afternoon; Victoria Park)

* * *

Korean Peasants League Banner
Looking back
A man was passing a giant banner "WTO kills farmers, Down Down WTO, Korean Peasants League" displayed in Victoria Park. After a week of sensational and spectacular protests, what, if anything, would be left? (December 18, 2005, Afternoon; Victoria Park)

Photos Of 12.4 Hong Kong Democratic March

Participants are not just a "turnout figure": Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang on the December 4 March

Chinese And Westerner December 4 Hong Kong Democratic March
East meets West in Victoria Park: Liberal democracy as a universal value.

Old Marcher December 4 Hong Kong Democratic March
"I come here for democracy," the old and proud marcher from Hong Kong East told me.

Joseph Zen December 4 Hong Kong Democratic March
Joseph Zen (Left), Roman Catholic Bishop, donned the universal suffrage T-shirt. Will he have the last laugh?