02 Sep 2010
It's no secret that smoking is pretty popular in China - unofficial stats suggest that around 300million people are hooked on the weed across China. But according to this Swedish newspaper article(in Swedish), 75% of Chinese smokers are unaware of the potential link between smoking and cancer.
Can that be true? If it is, it speaks volumes about a number of things - culture, education, public policy to name a few. Or are millions of Chinese smokers just in denial?
31 Aug 2010
I like reading the Guardian, so it pains me when they publish sensationalist crap like this article about Christian Dior's "racist" advert in Shanghai.. If you're not sure what it's about, you can see the original advert here and make up your own mind.
One of the original works for the advertisement for Dior
It doesn't matter what the story or underlying issue really is, it seems newspapers are really milking this tired old formula to boost their webstats:
- Find a patriotic Chinese nobody or a foreigner who's been to China once before
- Find a story that might be vaguely risqué
- Write some outrageous comment piece about how stupid western/Chinese people are
- Wait for the hundreds of comments to pour in.
The overseas Chinese writers come out looking like oversensitive, spoilt children, whingeing at every opportunity because somebody might have somehow indirectly slurred a motherland that they left 10 years ago in search of a better education, economic prospects and cultural freedoms.
The western author sounds like a head-in-the-clouds imperialist, claiming to understand the culture after spending two weeks in Shanghai, slumming it in Hilton hotels and speaking through a translator. Maybe they once read 'White Swans' and feel like they really understand China's dark past.
The quality of journalism aside, the frustrating thing is that, as always, the discussion promotes the understanding that Chinese/non-Chinese can't understand each other. Too often Chinese people are characterised as blinded, brainwashed and idiotic. In reverse, Western people are characterised as imperialist and patronising. That's the real racism going on here.
29 Aug 2010
It's been a long time coming, but by the end of October, Starbucks will be opening it's first coffee shop in Fuzhou.
There will be branches all over town, but the first branch in the reconstructed historic Nan Hou Jie street will be the flagship outlet. Within the first year they're expecting to open up to ten more in shopping malls and other areas.
Starbucks have been seemingly cautious to expand into towns like Fuzhou. Their first Chinese branch opened in Beijing in 1999, and despite the fact that Fuzhou is absolutely saturated with imitation Starbucks-esque coffee shops (and has been for years), the genuine article has been noticeably absent.
I predict Starbucks will be a big success here in Fuzhou - it's still seen as an attractive and bourgeois Western brand and lots of people will buy drinks there just to be seen with the Starbucks coffee cup in their hands. Chinese people are still not really big coffee drinkers, so I'm pretty sure like most coffee shops here, they will serve a range of food, fruit drinks and milk-teas to satisfy the Chinese palate.
Fuzhou will bring with it challenges too - not least the fact that the city already has established chains of coffee companies (like UD Cafe or Liang An Cafe) and hundreds of independent coffee shops. Market-saturation point has probably already arrived, but for a big chain like Starbucks who can use their brand and purchasing power to squeeze out smaller competitors, there's probably still a market here.
27 Aug 2010
Bing.com has been getting some pretty favourable reports recently for it's normal search functions and decent UI. But one area where it still sucks in comparison to Google is maps.
This is Bing's map of Fuzhou's Chang Le airport - resolution is pretty poor.
This is Google's equivalent map of the same location (Fuzhou's Chang Le airport). The resolution is good and the map is up-to-date.
Both of the mapping services have a pretty quick and easy to use UI, but when it comes to quality of the actual maps, Google is streets ahead. Check out the buildings around the north-east and south-east of the airport in the Google version - they don't even appear in the Bing version. Given the pace of development here in China, that mean's Bing's map is probably at least 2-3 years older than Google's.
Perhaps what this shows is not how poor Bing is, but actually how amazing Google has been in providing really accurate and up-to-date maps of remote places thousands of miles away from America.
11 Aug 2010
If you're a beginner to medium format photography and the art of developing your own films, one of the big things you'll need to pay attention to is preventing light-leaks.
If you don't know what light-leak is, take a look at the two pictures below that I recently got back from the lab * - both of them have over-exposed 'flares' down the edges which show that light creeped in on both edges of the film after it was exposed in the camera.
This is what a light-leak looks like on Ilford HP5 120 film once it's been developed
Light leaks can be caused by a number of things - bad handling of the film during development, a fault with your camera, poor storage of the film...in its undeveloped state, all film should have absolutely no light fall on it except what comes through the lens.
My light leaks here were caused by poor storage of the film once I took it out of the camera. I've learned one thing from this mistake - when you take your medium format 120 film out of the camera, take the little loose strip of paper, lick both ends, and wrap it tight around the exposed roll to prevent a light leak like mine.
* why am I getting films back from a lab instead of doing it myself? At the moment, in Fuzhou, it's pretty hard to find the chemicals needed to develop films (nobody sells it locally and suppliers on the internet have so far been unreliable. I'll keep trying!)
09 Aug 2010
Although Fuzhou isn't much of a tourist destination, there are a few traditional local products which Fuzhou is famous for across China. One of these things is the paper umbrella.
The Fujian region is famous as the birthplace of these beautiful umbrellas. Normally made from a thick paper, they are not purely decorative and were originally intended to be used as shield from the rain or strong sun. As with so many things in Chinese culture, the umbrellas soon became a way to express the art of the creator.
Paper umbrellas are decorated with beautiful drawings, patterns or configurations of wooden struts. They come in a huge range of colours and sizes, so if you're in Fuzhou, look out for any of the many street stalls selling them. I found mine here in Nan Hou Jie at a street stall, but there are many other places dotted around town.
04 Aug 2010
A few people have been asking me in recent days whether I've been affected by the floods that are on the news - the simple answer is "no".
The flooded areas in China are in the north-western provinces, especially in a town called Zhou Qu, in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Here it is on a map:
View Larger Map
China is an extreme place, and every year there are different extremes of weather that affect us. In Fuzhou at the moment, we have had blistering heat for a few months, and we're not even touched by the rains. But come Autumn time, and when the typhoon season starts, Fuzhou will be suffering while other parts of China have it easy.
04 Aug 2010
Being a lao wai (foreigner) in China has its ups and downs, but one thing's for sure - you'll never go poor with blue eyes, radiant white skin and fair hair.
This article about white guys pretending to be Chinese business men reminded me about some of the crazy opportunities to get paid people have offered me since I got here. I've been here a couple of years, and in my time I've been asked to be:
- A model teacher at a school's open day
- An education official from the UK at a business man's proposal to the local government
- An iron-clad English knight at the opening of a new housing estate
- A sleep-wear model (pyjamas and shit like that)
- A truck-parts sourcing consultant
- A dance judge at a regional dancing competition
- A foreign investor in a new wine shop
- A talking head for TV news covering the Paralympics in 2008
- A guest on a TV challenge gameshow
Almost all of these paid about 800-1000 RMB for a days work (except of course the TV ones), which is about half a month's wages for the average office worker here in Fuzhou. Just to be clear, I've rejected most of these without even a second thought - the only time I've accepted is when it will help a good friend out. Even lao wai have to 'save face' every once in a while.
03 Aug 2010
If you're looking for spectacular scenery to photograph in the south of China, don't ignore the coastal area of Xia Pu in the northern edges of the Fujian Province. If you have four days to spare, why not let one of the leading local photographers, Zhang Jin Hui, give you a tour and help you find all the best locations to frame your shots.
The drama of his own photography speaks volumes, and really capture the sometimes sleepy but occasionally dramatic lifestyle in the region. The photo above is one of my favourite water shots of all time, it really captures the danger and excitement of a small fishing boat venturing out into stormy seas.
If you fancy taking the tour, you can contact Mr Zhang via his blog and book yourself onto one of the next available tours. They're run regularly although they are conducted totally in Mandarin, so if you don't speak the language, you'll either need to hire a translator or take a chance and learn whatever you can from hand gestures and the others around you.
I'm off to Xia Pu next weekend, and have all fingers and toes crossed for some fantastic weather and a bit of luck too!
21 Jul 2010
After many years of finding little rewarding in Fuzhou's photography, it seems I was just looking in the wrong places! A recent historical photography exhibition introduced to me the photographer Cui Jian Nan.
Cui Jian Nan has taken a number of stunning portraits of Min opera performers. Min opera is the equivalent of the Beijing opera, spoken/sung in the local Fuzhou dialect. It's a little known aspect of Fuzhou or even Chinese culture, but many local areas have their own version of the Beijing opera, steeped in the local traditions and history.
Many of the portraits were taken in the mid-late 1990s, but in black and white and with classical composition, they echo a tradition that has spanned hundreds of years here in Fuzhou.
13 Jul 2010
A little reminder for people developing their own black-and-white pictures at home using Ilford Ilfosol S - this film developer has a short life-span and can quickly go out of date. If you're using Ilford Ilfosol S and it turns a deep brown colour, don't use it!
This is what Ilfosol S looks like when it's gone off - brown. Don't use it!
I was developing some film last night and opened a batch of film developer that I'd had sitting around for a while. I noticed that the colour was a dark brown, instead of the normal off white/yellow colour that it should be. When I checked on the internet, I found that it can easily go off - the telltale sign is when the liquid is brown. People jokingly call this Ilfosol's "sudden death" syndrome.
If you try to develop your film like this, it will just come out blank and you will have lost all those shots that you've taken, so please take my advice and avoid using film developer that has gone brown like this. Ilford suggest that the shelf life of Ilfosol is around 18 months if unopened, but common experience has it that the shelf life can be anything from 3-6 months. Here in China, where the climate is really hot in summer especially, this can be reduced massively. Be warned!
05 Jul 2010
It's official - Fuzhou is the best city to live in across the whole of China!
The news comes courtesy of the China Environmental Planning Department, who have surveyed living conditions and the environmental situation in 36 provincial cities in China. The survey found that Fuzhou scores higher than the capital Beijing, or other sprawling metropolises like Shanghai or Guangzhou.
The criteria have been described as "eat well, drink well, sleep well" - these break down into five separate things that the commission thought were most important to living standards:
- Clean drinking water
- Fresh air
- Easy to sleep
- Good quality food
- A green environment
There are 666 cities in China, with 34 of these having populations of over 1 million people (according to ChaCha.com). In general, southern cities scored higher than northern cities. The second and third rated cities were Ning Bo and Nanjing.
The survey focussed on environmental factors more than, for example, living conditions or access to jobs, but is still a pretty powerful indicator, and the local government chiefs here in Fuzhou will definitely be toasting themselves tonight for a job well-done!
For my part, the attraction of Fuzhou has always been the green environment - anyone who has been here will remember the Banyan trees overhanging the streets. Compared to other big cities in China, Fuzhou has many more "blue-sky-days", but it still suffers from hazy days for much of the year. The one thing perhaps that the survey ignored (against which Fuzhou would probably score badly) is in litter/rubbish on the streets. Compared to cities like Xiamen or Shanghai, Fuzhou's streets are covered with litter and it's not only pedestrians to blame - many times, I've seen shopkeepers and restaurant owners throw the day's slops directly onto the street right outside their own door! Come on Fuzhou, clean it up!
01 Jun 2010
If you're London based, or passing through, check out the exhibition of Paul Gallagher's photography at the gallery@oxo.
The photos are all stunning black and white large format prints of photos taken in rural and coastal Scotland. The theme of the exhibition and book is, obviously, the chords of grey available in the natural environment, and the photos show such a huge range of contrast in the landscapes they present. They remind me of the Ansel Adams photos that you can stare at for hours, marvelling at the detail.
I just had a quick look around before I fly off to China - each of the prints is hand-crafted and for sale at between £375 - £800, with a book for £50 approximately. They're incredible images, and if I was staying in the country, I'd buy one.
Visit the Chords of Grey exhibition website
ps. gallery@oxo is a really great little place. I've seen a few exhibitions there, always small and very high quality, and always top notch photographers. And every time I go there, nobody comes in! Perhaps they think it's a shop, or feel intimidated, but it really is a great little place to go for art and photography in particular.
24 May 2010
So you've just started using a film camera and want to start developing your own photos? If you're like me, developing your own film is something that you've always wanted to do, but never taken that first step towards. Well, the good thing is, developing film is so easy anyone can do it.
The equipment you'll need
I bought all this equipment from Silverprint in London for around £40. I'm sure it's easy to source on the internet or from your own local photography stores.
The equipment
The equipment you'll need do do this is:
- A developing tank - Kaiser Entwicklungsdose (it comes with two spindles/reels to load the film onto). There are other makes and models that are similar. It costs about £16
- Ilford Rapid Fixer (1 litre)
- Ilford Ilfosol 3 Film Developer
- Ilford HP5 120 film
You'll also need a couple of water jugs that can hold at least 700ml liquid, and a totally dark room.
A totally dark room
Did I say you need a totally dark room? For the fourth time, you must have a room ready that lets in absolutely zero light. You won't need to do the whole thing in the darkness, but the first part of the process requires absolute darkness. Get out some black tape, cover the windows - whatever you need to do to make sure ZERO light gets in.
The basic steps
You're going to go through these basic steps:
- In total darkness, transferring the film from the roll into the developing tank
- Adding developing solution into the tank and developing the film
- Adding the fixing solution to the tank and fixing the film
- Drying the developed film out ready to be scanned/used
1. Transfer the film
Turn the lights off now, and make sure the room has no light coming in. Once you're safely inside your totally blacked out room, you can begin to extract the film that you've developed, and transfer it into the developing tank. You'll need to unwind the film, separate the paper backing from the actual film, and throw the paper backing away.
You'll be in the pitch blackness, so remember that the paper backing is many times longer than the film itself. The film has a 'plastic' feel to it.
Once you have the film separated, wind it onto the film reel. This is easy to do, and there is a technique. Check out this video on youtube for some guidance on how to do it properly. Once you've got the film safely on the reel, place it inside the tank, and screw the tank's lid shut.
Develop the film
You can turn the lights on now. You will now need to add the developing solution into the tank and let it soak the film for about 7 minutes. Peel off the top lid (not the screw-lid, the other one) and pour in the diluted developing solution. There's a couple of important things you'll need to pay attention to:
- Refer to the manufacturers instructions - depending on the type of film and the manufacturer of your chemicals, you'll need to refer to their instructions. You need to make sure you dilute the chemicals properly, you develop the film for the right amount of time, and it is kept at the right temperature.
- Agitate the film - this means, shake it to make sure the developer reaches all parts of the film equally. You'll need to give the tank a gentle shake (or rotate it upside-down a few times) for about 10 seconds every 1 minute. Once you've finished agitating it, tap the tank on a hard surface (to release air bubbles) and set it back down.
Once you've finished developing the film, empty out the liquid, and fill-up the tank 2 or 3 times with lukewarm water and empty. This helps clean away any residue developer.
Fix the film
Now you'll need to repeat the same process as above (adding liquid, agitating the tank etc.) but with the fixer. The fixing solution holds the exposure in place and stops it degrading or changing any more.
Again, pour in your correctly diluted fixing solution and close the lid. You'll need to agitate this mixture in the same way as above, for the same amount of time. Normally the fixer only needs 3-4 minutes to work successfully.
After about 3-4 minutes, empty out the solution and rinse under lukewarm water again. When you're finished, you can safely take the film out of the tank and expose it to normal light.
Drying the film
The film will come out soft and wet - it won't be sensitive to the light any more, but you'll need to be careful now that it doesn't get exposed to dirt, dust or hairs. These will stick to the film really easily and leave you with either a ruined film, or mountains of photoshop to be done.
Run your finger down the film to get rid of any excess water, and then hang it up in a dust-free or clean environment. Let it dry for about 6 hours at least before you start looking at it or scanning it.
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