Rush hour in Beijing on a gloomy Thursday evening…

Chan Koonchung - The Globe & Mail

Last week I had the opportunity to photograph the Hong Kong author, Chan Koonchung, who has recently sprung to the attention of the international community as a result of the publication of his book, The Fat Years. The Fat Years paints a dystopian picture of China, dissecting the political workings of the country and its implications on the pysche of modern Chinese.

I’ve included  a couple of images from the shoot, one of which was used online to accompany the article written by the Globe & Mail’s East Asia correspodent, Mark Mackinon. Read his article “Chinese must not forget the past, warns author of the Fat Years“.

Chan Koonchung in a Starbucks in Beijing. 2012

Chan Koonchung in the Sanlitun district of Beijing. 2012

Travelling around Beijing today, I spotted these two young students sat on the floor of the subway. Crouched next to one another I couldn’t help but notice that they were doing what seemed to be their English homework, with the student in the background scribbling notes and the other in the foreground looking up words on his cellphone.

It’s Sunday afternoon but it was clear that these young students were either coming from, or going to school. This isn’t rare in China at all, as many students are required to attend classes at the weekend. The pressures on young students in China is enormous and competition is high amongst classmates. Many have extra classes in school and/or out of it in private ones.

Whether getting a head start on their homework, or rushing to finish it before class, it was nice scene to see these guys helping each other out on the subway.

Shi Kang - Wall Street Journal

If you happen to look at the Wall Street Journal today, keep an eye out for a few images of mine that are online and in print. I recently had the opportunity to spend the day with Chinese author, Shi Kang, on a shoot for the Wall Street Journal. The story has been published today. Read it here.

Shi Kang is a fascinating character. He writes mostly about the disillusioned lives of young Chinese and is now a household name, due to the success of his novels. I spent the day with him photographing his daily life and chatted with him a lot about his writings and his thoughts about modern China. Watch the video below, by Angela Yeoh, to get a further glimpse into Shi Kang’s life…

There’s been a fair amount of talk recently about China’s clampdown on ‘western influences’. From the new censorship measures imposed on the number of foreign shows on television, to president Hu Jintao’s recent comments, “we must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of westernising and dividing China.” Strong talk.

Living in Beijing, it is pretty clear that western influences are well and truly ‘infiltrating’, in the cities at least. Western movie stars in billboard advertisements loom over shoppers, magazine racks are peppered with western sports stars’ faces and foreign movies are available to buy from hawkers outside most subway stations.

Talking to young urban Chinese people, it seems that there is hope for a better future. They are more aware of what’s happening in the world than many people think. They are aware of many of the restrictions placed upon them.

As this younger generation starts to move into positions where they can make things happen, things will hopefully change for the better. It might be a slow process though. The next 20-30 years are going to be interesting times. Stay tuned…

Asia Society - Giant Pandas

Last week saw a couple of interesting publications online that I wanted to share here. They are quite contrasting but are linked by their ties to environmental issues in China, which as readers of this blog will know, is a subject that I specialise in covering here in Asia.

The first is from the Asia Society who did an interview with me about the current state of Giant Panda populations in the wild in China. I really like collaborating with the Asia Society as they are very much dedicated to covering environmental issues and highlighting under-reported stories in the region. You can also view the 7-part Multimedia series on China’s Wetlands here that I produced with them and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting at the end of 2011.

Foreign Policy Magazine - The Smog That Ate Beijing

The second publication online was with Foreign Policy Magazine who published a series of images on the subject matter of Beijing air pollution, titled The Smog that Ate Beijing. At the end of last week I published a post with some extra images from this shoot and also some thoughts into how I made the images. That post was titled ‘Behind the Smog That Ate Beijing’ and you can view that here.

Happy browsing!

A view of air pollution over the CCTV building in Beijing, China. Wednesday January 18th 2012

I got a call on Wednesday from Foreign Policy magazine asking me to do a quick 1 day assignment. The brief? To travel around Beijing and capture the dense layer of smog that was sitting on top of the city. Beijingers and visitors will be all too familiar with this ‘fog’ which regularly descends upon the city. The story was published yesterday online and has become one of the most popular stories on the FP site (view here). I thought I would include here on the blog, a few shots that didn’t make the final cut and explain some of the challenges in photographing air pollution.

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Canon T-shirt (black)

With summer almost upon us, I know many photographers are wondering what on earth their wardrobe contains that will ensure they stand out from the crowds of other photographers this season. Forget scarves. In case something goes wrong with your camera, why not have a t-shirt which doubles as a mini schematic of how your camera works?! The above t-shirt can be purchased in UniQlo in Beijing for the bargain price of 100rmb (US$15).

If schematics are not your thing, then you might want to head for the slightly more understated white t-shirt with simplified Canon EOS motif. Two, surely ‘must have’ items for this year’s summer wardrobe

Canon T-Shirt (white)

Saturday 26th March 2011 marks this year’s ‘Earth Hour’, a global event aimed at raising awareness across borders about the effect we have on our climate and inspire action to manage humanities impact on climate change.

According to Earth Hour’s website: “On Saturday 27 March, Earth Hour 2010 became the biggest Earth Hour ever. A record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Asia Pacific to Europe and Africa to the Americas switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.”

China has embraced Earth Hour with gusto with advertisements popping up everywhere in Beijing recently promoting the cause. Last year I headed out the the Bird’s Nest, Beijing’s centerpiece for the 2008 Olympic Games, to capture Earth Hour using timelapse video. The resulting piece shows the crowds who were there to witness the turning off of the lights at this magnificent stadium. In real-time, the change wasn’t quite so dramatic but speeded up to one minute, makes for more interesting viewing.

Quick post today. As Beijing is my Chinese adopted hometown, I couldn’t resist posting this video when I came across it.

‘Live the Language’ seems to be a new series of advertisements for English First, a language training school. I like the feel to these videos and suspect that they have been shot on a DSLR. Many shots throughout the video have that very shallow depth-of-field feel to them that typifies video shot with a DSLR.

Watching this video is also a test of your Chinese knowledge! How many characters can you recognize?