Visions of Modernity Mission Statement
This can always be found on my sidebar under Mission. I thought it appropriate to post it now at the beginning. Subject to (slight) alteration!
Introduction
During the 19th century China was dubbed the “Sick Man of Asia” when the great regional power failed to resist the depredations of European colonial enterprises. Now such a moniker might seem laughable. The sheer immensity of China’s developmental efforts along with the opaque administrative practices of the Chinese state perpetuate a cloud of anxiety around its emergence into contemporary international socioeconomic affairs. Under these auspices, the Chinese Communist Party has become a formidable player within the power dynamics of a now globalized planet. The once dormant dragon has begun to stir.
Whether pejorative or complimentary, appraisals of China must not denote it as a monolith. The unparalleled multiplicity of people and regions defies any generalization. A name alone cannot encapsulate the kaleidoscope of often-conflicting interests, ethnicities, and traditions the Chinese state claims to represent. Simplifications only produce barriers to realizing initiatives that might establish intercultural consonance and systems of sustainable development between China and the United States.
More importantly, a host of domestic troubles already face China that could potentially impact the rest of the world. Among these problems are pollution, natural resource extinction, speech and media censorship, inequitable judicial systems, the urban/rural wealth gap, and corporate/government collusion. Despite its increasing international clout, China can perhaps still be characterized as the “Sick Man of Asia.” The seed of this malady no longer sprouts from its inability to defend itself militarily, as was the case in the 19th century, but from an improvident vision of modernity and progress guiding the largest national population in the world. For the foreseeable future, it is impossible to ignore how 1.3 billion other people live on this planet.
The Project
In an era when prudent international cooperation is critical, clear perceptions of China and its people have become imperative. Paranoia and xenophobia lurk where many misconceptions of China flourish. My photo documentary will attempt to elucidate the conventions and everyday dispositions of individuals suspended within Beijing’s shifting socioeconomic spectrum in order to undermine barriers that stifle practical dialogue between China and the United States.
This visual narrative will primarily be composed of stark portraits of people in Beijing facing new challenges in ever-changing urban environments. As similar struggles play out in the United States, the project should evoke mutual concerns about the role of media, technology, and government in constructing communal spaces. The dynamic between such imposing architectures of transformative power and identity formation needs to be clarified through specific cases and patterned collective trends. I will thus employ a bifurcated approach to document individuals. Some people will be photographed and interviewed within composed private spaces such as their homes or in a small studio I will set up in my apartment. They will represent the core of the project and be revisited throughout the year. Other people will be photographed as they interact within public spaces such as markets, transportation centers, malls, monuments, and parks.
The timing of this project is also essential in that it culminates with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Chinese state has eagerly anticipated this event for years. A heavily symbolic mirage depicting a coherent, unified, harmonious nation will be conjured for the world – a spectacle that will both entice and deceive. By the end of the year, my accumulated photography and writing will confront this elaborate production by juxtaposing it with the stories of people trying to come to terms with the imposition of the Chinese state’s vision of modernity. The Olympics should benefit the country but cannot be an opportunity for the Chinese state to mask the quandaries stemming from the implementation of its improvident socioeconomic policies.
My work will hopefully offer a glimpse into an elaborate process of personal and cultural identity transformation. The underlying diversity of China must be recognized and appreciated in order to avoid using the term “China” as another empty metaphor suited for promoting national chauvinism. Instead, its people should be approached as potential neighbors of widely varying backgrounds who, nonetheless, seek common humanitarian ideals and social equities. The United States and China share a mutual future and responsibility in this world and must, as partners, look to provide greater civil liberties and establish effective systems of sustainable development.
Influences and Method
I have recently been very moved by the photography of Sze Tsung Leong and Liu Zheng. Both artists produce documentary work analyzing the fragmentary process of personal and cultural identity formation in China. Their respective visual narratives “History Images” and “The Chinese” are startlingly poignant and provide blunt depictions of people and places that provoked in me a fundamental revaluation of the socioeconomic transformations currently underway in China. These changes are strangely familiar to us all as they play out across a globalized planet splintered by nations struggling with their discordant visions of modernity and progress.
As great world powers, a thoughtful mutual dialogue between China and the United States is imperative. I hope to break down obstructions that derive from prejudiced conjectures of what or whom the Chinese state stands for by offering candid portraits of individuals in Beijing – people who often share similar concerns and aspirations with constituents of the United States. Ideally, my photography will engender some form of empathy that allows viewers to appreciate and be inspired by the plurality of human experience and its underlying bonds.
The creation of my own discourse concerning China and its people should be a humbling experience and explore the efficacy of the documentary project itself as well as the socioeconomic policies implemented by the Chinese state. Still, by offering a short glimpse into the complex cultural web emerging in China, I hope to help people in the United States begin to fathom and more closely identify with its diversity and subsequently their own. We can no longer worry about what it means to be Chinese or American, but what it means to be a part of a globalized planet with increasingly intrusive architectures of transformative power subtended by media, technology, and governments. The photography must draw viewers into a jarring but familiar world that show people struggling for self-determination and greater agency to express themselves.