Many Faces of China: Decline of Communism

Double Edged Sword: The decline in influence of the Communist Party in the lives of Chinese is not without its drawbacks. Basic health and welfare benefits are scarcer than in previous years. Regional and local Communist Party offices lack central funding and Party corruption is rampant in smaller towns and villages. Despite China’s rise to global prominence, the new era of “Leninist Corporatization” has yet to “trickle down” to the 80 percent of Chinese who still live as peasants. With diminishing opportunity in their local villages, many Chinese have abandoned their agricultural “roots” and migrated toward China’s industrial regions in search of better paying jobs.

Many Faces of China: The Market

Nice Buns! Hangzhou prides itself as the “Venice of China”. Travel by boat through a series of canals lead us to a narrow winding local street market at dusk. Fresh steamed pork buns were a big hit with the locals.

Many Faces of China: Kids

China’s emergence from decades of Communist “cold storage” is obvious everywhere. The decentralization of China’s Communist Party has significantly diminished its influence on the daily activities of Chinese citizens. The social repression of Mao’s Cultural Revolution is a distant memory. Chinese are “out and about”, traveling freely and every public space is crowded. My greatest challenge was to filter out the massive visual “noise” of these busy urban environments. This series of photographs represents my effort to capture images that separate the individual from the crowd and find the rare moment of quiet among the cacophony of modern Chinese life.

China’s prohibition regarding families having more than one child, established in 1979, has resulted in a huge impact on Chinese families. A generation of Chinese has no sibling. These solitary children have no aunts, uncles or first cousins. Childhood friends substitute for brothers and sisters. Babies are treated like treasured objects.