REFLECTIONS IN A CHINESE EYE

Lu Xun

This is a compilation of phtoographs of Lu Xun - I purchased in a mall about 2007.

The back cover has a printed in the year 1974 on it.

Chinese as Photographed on Ogden Cigarette Cards 1902

60,000 porn websites shut in China

Beijing: More than 60,000 pornographic websites have been shut in China following a massive crackdown, authorities said.

Nearly 1.785 million websites have been checked since the launch of the campaign in December 2009 and some 2,197 cases of dissemination of online pornography have been dealt with during the crackdown, National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said.

The office said it has received more than 160,000 porn-related tip-offs from the general public, state-run Xinhua reported.

"Spread of pornography has been effectively curbed and the Internet further purified," the office said.

China has the world's largest online population, with more than 420 million netizens.

IBN LIVE

Eyewitness: Headlong into marriage

Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series

Chinese newlyweds pose for wedding photographs in Thames Town, Songjiang, China. Couples gather daily to have their wedding portraits taken in the newly built town with architecture influenced by classic English market town styles

Daniel Berehulak

Guardian

Kolkata is like the Chinese cities of the 90s: photographer

If seen from the eyes of an ace American photographer, the large Chinese cities of the 1990’s is what Kolkata, another Communists’ bastion, looks like today. "The city appears to be in a certain state of neglect and decay, such as with large Chinese cities say 15 or 20 years ago, yet it feels as

though there is less social and political tension here than in those revamped cities in China today," said Fritz Hoffmann, internationally recognised for his 13-year work documenting change in China as a photojournalist.

A frequent contributor to the National Geographic magazine, Hoffmann’s work has made an important contribution to the world's understanding of modern China. When asked whether he has been able to draw a parallel between the two places, both under the Marxists rule, by means of his photos, he replied in the negative. "I've been thinking of this while here and I'm not sure that I have a conclusion as yet," said the lensman, who was in the city recently to conduct a photography workshop by Studio Pomegranate.

Read more at The Hindustan Times

Amateur historian visits China exhibit

WILLIAMSTOWN -- As an amateur photographer and historian fascinated by the Great Wall, Li Ju was searching for old photos of it on the Internet in China.

What he found would entwine him in a 100-year-old journey through the wilds of western China by a rich American art collector.

He came across the photos and writings posted on the Internet by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute about its founder, Sterling Clark, and his 1909 scientific expedition through the largely unsettled northwestern China territories.

Li was so intrigued by Clark's journey that he retraced the 2,000-mile route four times, all the while trying to recreate every photograph that came out of Clark's journey from exactly the same spot -- not a simple task. The result is a fascinating comparison of architecture, commercial development, landscape and culture separated by 100 years.

Read more at The Berkshire Eagle

Photo Journal

Pictures Of The Day

MOURNING: Tibetan monks gathered outside their monastery in Yushu County, Qinghai province, China, Tuesday. China declared a national day of mourning for the more than 2,000 victims of last week’s earthquake, as rescue workers battled altitude sickness and bad weather conditions in the disaster zone. (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

Dream Left on Covered Bridges 廊桥遗梦

(Note: My younger sister Maple, an avid traveler and photographer who resides in Shanghai at the moment, just sent me another interesting travelogue. It makes you wonder how many mysteries exist in Chinese cultural history, just like the Yuyuan Taiji Celestial Village she wrote about last time. – Xujun)

Immortal Resident Bridge, built in 1453

[In translation]

Many years ago I read 廊桥遗梦 ("a dream left on covered bridges" – the Chinese translation for The Bridges of Madison County). That little book touched me deeply, even today I still remember some of the words Robert said to Francesca.

I was young and couldn't understand why Francesca would choose to stay instead of go with Robert. I felt sad and dejected for Robert. I took the novel as a true story, and wanted to go look for that covered bridge with blooming butterfly flowers at its foot.

At the time I did not have any idea what a covered bridge was.

Wenzhong Bridge, 1745

Three years ago when I traveled to Nanxi River, two backpack travelers from Beijing told me there were over a hundred covered bridges in Taishun County (泰顺县), located on the border between Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. This information gave me palpitations; for a while I was speechless. I couldn't imagine what the landscape would look like with so many covered bridges scattered in the fields. Would there be butterfly flowers blooming by them? Would Robert's love be there waiting? Even though this is a different country, covered bridges are covered bridges, right? Their existence itself suggests romanticism more than utility.

Today I'm in Taishun. Traversing the quiet villages one after another, looking for the different charming bridges one after another, I am baffled. Why has this remote, rather poor countryside assembled the largest number of covered bridges in China? Who designed them? Who first got the idea? Who built them? Were they for practical use or for recreation?

Read more and view beautiful and fantastic bridges of China at Inside-Out China

5 Fantastic Mountain Scenes in Xinjiang, China

If you were ever under the impression that people only travel to Xinjiang to ride a camel in the desert, think again, my friend.  Early last year I profiled the top lakes in Xinjiang, each of which are off the beaten path and  provide some of the best opportunities to day-hike.

This next set of natural wonders might be a little more difficult to hike in a day.

You’d never know it from this picture, but K2 – the peak in the distant left – comes in second place for both the “world’s highest” category (after Mt. Everest) and the “world’s deadliest” (which is held by Annapurna).  K2, part of the Karakmoram mountain range, is located in the southwest corner of Xinjiang along the borders of Pakistan and China.

Read and view more photos at Xinjiang - Far West China

Google releases satellite images of China quake damage

WASHINGTON — Google released satellite imagery on Monday of the devastation from last week's earthquake which killed more than 2,000 people in northwest China.

The imagery, available on Google Earth, the Internet giant's online mapping product, included a before-and-after picture of a city heavily damaged by the 6.9-magnitude quake in Qinghai province on Wednesday.

Google said in a blog post that it had worked with satellite company GeoEye to obtain the high resolution post-earthquake pictures.

Read more at Google News

Pictures of the Day: Rescue Efforts in China and Frustration in Europe

Lens is the photography blog of The New York Times, presenting the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slide shows. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web. 

View photos of Tibetan earthquake rescue of young girl after 50 hours in the rubble.

"China through the lens" exhibited in US

Hundreds of photographs have been assembled in an official collection called "China's renowned photographers' Focus on China". Now, the very best of those works are on display in Washington D.C.

The nearly one hundred photos on display were selected from more than 350 pieces taken by nearly 250 Chinese photographers.

Frozen in time, a full round of China and its people is displayed stretching back 6 decades since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Peng Jiahua, Organizer, said, "We want the American viewers to learn what's happening in China, especially regarding the ordinary people in the photo. They reflect real life of China."

Hundreds of photographs have been assembled in an official collection called "China's renowned photographers' Focus on China".Now, the very best of those works are on display in Washington D.C.(CCTV.com)

The organizer says that the young generation of overseas Chinese will also get the chance to learn about their motherland's culture and history.

The exhibition runs through Wednesday. And if you want to see more, all the works are collected in "China's renowned photographers' Focus on China," published in 2009 by the China Federation of Literary Publishing Corporation, one of the biggest comprehensive artistic and literary publishing houses in China.

(with video) People's Daily Online.

In pictures: Chinese miners rescued

Miners rescued after one week.

View all photos at The BBC

The World's Most Dangerous Hiking Trail

Looming high into the heavens, Huashan Mountain can be found approximately 75 miles east of the city of Xi’an in the Shaanxi Province. Its five peaks, when viewed from a specific angle, resemble the petals of a beautiful flower. Despite its beauty, the mountain is considered one of the steepest on the planet, ranking it amongst the most dangerous when it comes to mountain hiking trails.

The mountain itself sits amongst four others, all of which are considered the sacred mountains of China. The other sacred mountains include Shandong’s Mount Taishan, Shanxi’s Mount Hengshan, Hunan’s Mount Hengshan, and Henan’s Mount Songshan. Mount Huashan, however, is perhaps the most popular due to its difficult hiking trails.

Mount Huashan is considered one of the holiest mountains, as the Taoist temples found on its embankments were once frequent destinations during the pilgrimages held by ancient emperors. A number of these temples still exist, making the mountain a well-traveled destination for tourists, Chinese youth, pilgrims, and monks alike.

Read more at Rates to Go.

Also see The Dangerous Huashan Hiking Trail.

HAULING WATER

Photo Journal

Pictures of the Day

HAULING WATER: A villager carried water from a well for her cattle in drought-stricken Kunming, Yunnan province, China, Thursday. Emergency wells were being drilled and cloud-seeding operations carried out in southern China, where the worst drought in decades has left millions of people without water, officials said. (China Daily/Reuters)

View more at The Wall Street Journal.

Canon Says China May Become Top Camera Market in 2015

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Canon Inc. expects China’s camera market to become the world’s largest as early as 2015, overtaking the U.S., its head of the business said.

Canon, the world’s biggest camera maker, is doubling the number of outlets and boosting its marketing workforce in the Asian nation to tap the company’s fastest-growing major market, Masaya Maeda, said in an interview yesterday in Tokyo. “The China market is very vibrant and will likely drive worldwide growth in the coming years,” he said.

The maker of the EOS and PowerShot models forecasts sales volume will rise 10 percent in China this year, while growth in developed nations will likely remain small, Maeda said without elaborating. Canon’s global camera sales will increase 6.6 percent to 25.7 million units in the 12 months ending Dec. 31, the company projected in January. China accounted for about 15 percent of Canon’s camera sales in 2009, he said.

View Complete Article at BusinessWeek.

Master animator's legacy crossed borders

Tadahito Mochinaga sets up a frame for the animation movie "Little Black Sambo." (PHOTOS PROVIDED NORIKO MOCHINAGA)Tadahito Mochinaga

SAGA--The 1964 U.S. puppet animation film "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" that is so beloved by children around the world owes much of its magic to a Japanese animator.

But even in his homeland, Tadahito Mochinaga (1919-1999) is not well known.

Moves are afoot in the city of Saga, where Mochinaga spent his early childhood, to recognize anew how much he contributed to the film industry.

Revered as a pioneer of puppet animation in Japan and China, Mochinaga nurtured many animators in the two countries during his long career, which got its start when World War II was raging.

He was also the winner in the children's category of an international film festival in Vancouver in 1958 with his "Chibikuro Sambo no Tora Taiji" (Little Black Sambo, 1956).

Despite his accomplishments, Mochinaga is not well known in Japan. That's something people in Saga want to change. They recently organized a symposium on his contributions to the field of animation.

In the Japan-China symposium on Feb. 5 to 7, animation camerawoman Duan Xiaoxuan from Shanghai said the art of animation in China owed much to Mochinaga.

View Complete Article at The Asahi Shimbun.

Worker Safety In Chinese Factories

China Factory Series #7 - Worker Safety In Chinese Factories

Fri, 19/02/2010 - 3:50am

Today's post is a case study in health and safety issues at an 'investment casting' factory near Ningbo. It will be my final China Factory Series blog post.

VIEW COMPLETE PHOTO ARTICLE AT ALEX HOFFORD PHOTOGRAPHY

Burden

A passenger with her hands full hurries to catch her train at the railway station in Nanchang, east China, at the weekend. She was one of millions travelling home to celebrate the start of the year of the tiger on February 14th. Photograph: Zhou Ke/AP Photo/Xinhua

China through Victorian eyes

Was it curiosity that, in 1868, inspired a disaffected, thirtysomething former optician’s apprentice from Edinburgh to travel to China with his camera? Certainly John Thomson was acting in no official capacity. The previous year he had published The Antiquities of Cambodia and successfully completed the transition from young man with wanderlust to professional photographer and travel writer.

From Cambodia he had gone on to photograph Vietnam and Singapore. Then he set up studio in Hong Kong. China was the obvious next step. Thomson would spend four years there, travelling far into the country’s hidden interior, an odyssey of more than 5,000 miles. Glass negatives of the photographs he took in China filled three huge packing crates for the voyage home. Now, for the first time, a selection of more than 140 of Thomson’s Chinese photographs goes on display in Britain, in a Liverpool museum.

China Through the Lens of John Thomson, 1868-72 presents a snapshot of vanished Imperial China. It includes landscape, portrait and reportage photography. Thomson did not work as part of a government survey or religious mission. A pioneer of photo-journalism, he set out simply to record what he saw in the decade after the European sacking of Peking. His work appears to be untouched by 19th-century Western prejudice towards China.

Afterwards he recorded the “many instances of simple, genuine hospitality” he had encountered during his travels: “I feel assured that any foreigner knowing enough of the language to make his immediate wants understood, and endowed with a reasonable, even temper, would encounter little opposition in travelling over the greater part of China.”

finish article at Times Online.

DOCUMENTING CHINA

FROM  COUNTRY  TO  CITY
Social Changes of China in Photography
Gu Zheng
Translated by John Yu Zou

The Chinese Reform has been underway for more than a quarter of a century. This historical social transformation is one in which all of Chinese society is moving toward urbanization. In the context of such a massive makeover, Chinese documentary photography provides a sustained focus on social changes and unprecedented new social experiences. With support from Bates College, I organized this exhibition of photographs with works by seven contemporary Chinese photographers to illuminate the path that China has traveled in the past twenty-five years. The exhibition is intended to illustrate changes in Chinese society to an American audience.

Complete essay here

Glaciers in southern China receding rapidly, scientists say

Yulong Snow Mountain, which used to be a brilliant white, is now mostly gray, worrying those who study it and see it as a sort of canary in a coal mine.

By Barbara Demick

Reporting from Lijiang, China - If you want to see a glacier melt with your bare eyes, try Yulong Snow Mountain, an 18,000-foot peak in southern China's Yunnan province.

On this early December morning, the mountain is etched against the technicolor sky in shades of gray -- definitely more gray than white. Naked boulders of limestone and daubs of shrubbery protrude from the shallow snow cover.

At a scenic overlook on the way up, tourists leave their woolly hats in the tour bus when they hop out to take photographs.

Even with its bald spots, the mountain is a picture postcard. But scientists worry about the way it is changing.

"Look here," said Du Jiankuo, a 25-year-old Chinese scientist, raising his telephoto lens to a gray patch. "You can see where we lost another big chunk of ice."

Completion @ The Los Angeles Times

November 2007, I was fortunate to be on vacation in the Kumming area; I got to visit  Dali and Lijiang for 14 days.  A wonderful adventure to be sure. 

When I came upon this article this morning and looked at the photo of the Yulong Snow Mountain, to say that I was shocked would be an understatement.

Follow the link and take note of the photo.  Compare what you see there with the pictures I took with my Canon A640 on a beautiful, crisp morning in November, 2007.

     

To me, it doesn't look to be the same place.  In the L.A. Times photo the mountain looks sick.

Really sick.

And, presently there are no mountain doctors available.

Moving Day

China Eye Candy

AMAZING photos of China.