Guangzhou Diary: Week 4 Written on October 21, 2008, by .

19th October

In search of a bank. The continued spending of time and money is beginning to hang over me. I suppose I have to remember I cam here knowing nothing and have planned as I’ve gone. The 10 week practical in six. In fact I’m trying to cram the whole of term 2 and term 3 into 6 weeks. It isn’t all going to fall into place overnight, either on the ground or in my head. If all I get are 20-30 good portraits plus questionnaires, that’s enough for the course. If I get a more reportage style story as well to go with it, then even better. But really, already, at this stage, limited finances and an essay deadline on the 14th November means I need to be thinking about heading back up end of October, say two more weeks. I’m doing ok, really, so I’ll get what I can get in the next two weeks, however rushed it is. Although I’m enjoying shooting it, its hard, physically and mentally, and the relief of going back up on the train with enough (or not) for a book is one I am relishing. That isn’t to say I wont be back later. I have a feeling that in order to really do it justice it would require me re-locating permanently to Guangzhou and work on it long term, two years, at its own pace, but there might be another project looming by then…find out banks aren’t able to transfer money from abroad on Sundays. They never ever were before…website said otherwise though…confusing…

Get French copy of questionnaire printed out. Seems to make a difference. Head to Dongfeng foreign trade centre. Hand back a couple of questionnaires in French. Introduce myself to a few shop owners, unsuccessfully, might have more portrait opportunities there tomorrow. Problem is though that

Get talking to people on the chairs outside the shopping part, but still inside, a collection of plastic chairs. African guys are always hanging out there, every time I go past, chilling, drinking beer. I talk to a group, they’re from various places, one guy is from Zambia via Denmark, he’s studying at South China normal university, another is from Cameroon,a very charismatic guy, a bit older, a real character, studying in Nanning, Guangxi province, but down in Guangzhou most weekends to do business. I guess its an overnight trip on the train. He likes the idea of someone doing a documentary, these guys seem to get the whole idea of what there is here and why someone would want to document it. He notes that there’s lots of Chinese in Cameroon, and they get given all the best treatment, either by their company or by their host governments, certainly better than the Africans get from the Chinese he reckons. The guy from Cameroon doesn’t have his business card on him, but takes a questionnaire, and we exchange emails, he’s going to type it all out and add his own typed answers below, apparently, plus send me a jpg of his card. he’s a tidy worker he explains, likes to do everything properly. I’ll be astonished if the email arrives. I mean retype it all himself ?Isn’t that just the sort of talk you give in the moment and forget about next day, especially after a few beers ? We will see. Still, his inter-province commute and businessman-student existence is a potentially interesting story. I take portraits of them all, hopefully some good ones,a range of compositions, one even with a mixed Chinese-African baby on his knee, although not his baby, that of a Chinese woman working nearby. Suddenly the Chinese working there all want portraits too, but my shooting and developing costs are 80 Yuan a roll. I’ll return with my DSLR and do more some other time.

Next guys I speak to are outside an African restaurant, from Niger (and not Nigeria). They’ve been here a while speak good Chinese. Chatting to them, they tell me a lot, along with others that form in a group around, about the various “hang-outs”. The more I’m here, the more I see the African guys, usually the guys – you see plenty women walking around, often in groups, but they’re always in shops or shopping - socialise in definite spots, its not always the same people outside “their” shop, its more a shifting, moving social group, chatting, drinking, laying the grounds for business, and there seems to be several defined “zones”, which are no doubt tolerated by the authorities. In fact the guy from Angola told me before about Africans existing in “gaps”, so these hang-outs are in some ways gaps in the Confucian system, trees which provide shelter from the authoritarian flow that the authorities know better than to dislodge. As far as I know, the “gaps” are the following spots

Moka Coffee in the Tianxiu building, although its somewhat more formal, business-like, and also got lots of Middle-East & Central Asia folk, and probably Lounge Coffee shop too, but Moka seems busier, right on the corner and open to the inside of Tianxiu mall

The seats & tables by the African restaurant at the back of Dongfeng Hotel foreign trading mall

The steps outside shops owned by the friendly beer-selling Chinese up on on Baohan Jie.

plus three other places, but the key is time, different places at a certain time.

Xiatang Xi Lu beside the Volvo garage at night, in the evening.

Sanyuanli from 2-7, specifically at a place called Guangxi Lu called Jia Na market, which is apparently run mostly by Nigerians…and this would also explain my lack of success in finding Africans when I went out to Sanyuanli before…

and finally, he mentioned a place in the Da Xiang or Elephant Mall, a place I had walked past umpteen times but for some reason never gone into. He called a Chinese guy working nearby to go and take me to it, and off I went…

…it was the same place I’d read about in the original article and had been trying to find since I came here, the barbers. And not one but two, a hairdresser for the ladies as well. Just as well I got the French photocopies done, they prove successful, all these guys and girls are French speakers, all from Congo, brightly clothed, fashionable, and extrovert. They spoke enough English to get basic ideas across, and I was just going through the usual procedure for explaining why I wanted to take photos when a guy ran over “hey, a camera, cool - you can take my photo”and he was already there posed on the coolest shot-but-cool Chinese-bus-station-style plastic seats,and then suddenly everyone wanted a photo, shot a whole roll in ten minutes. The barber stopped cutting and came over asking for a photo of him in mid-cut, yeah, great. So this was the Congo hangout it seemed. These guys were pretty vocal, very visual in their clothing and styles, all here doing business for 6 months, a year, but mostly had had enough of China, were going back soon, and it was easy to see why – their exuberance, with Congolese traditional dance music blaring out intermittently with hip-hop and R&B and them breaking into dance every ten seconds, passing a microphone around, there was no way they would be able to accept Chinese-style conformity for long. Meeting them was as if a major jigsaw of the project had suddenly fallen into place. I just have to find out more about Congo’s politics now. Watch Marcus Bleasdale’s “Rape of a nation” on Mediastorm again. They gave me a quick tour of the building, showing me another African restaurant where i’ll surely eat tomorrow,and I asked if they’d be there tomorrow, sure, we’re always here.

And off I went, and having given away all my French copies of the questionnaire,with probably no hope of getting them back, i passed through the Dongfeng mall again on the way to the copy shop. The guy from earlier was still there. I told him I met the guys from Congo ”Hah, the Congo guys - everyone knows them- they’re crazy, maybe too crazy”.

It was too late to check out Sanyuanli again, but I had time to head up to Xiatang Xilu. Not much to see, a few people sitting around, but not, in terms of being a condensed community in a condensed space for documenting, anything like the Congo haircutting corner of the DaXiang mall. So I headed back, and on the bridge back over to the Tianxiu building I bumped into the guy from Ghana whose portrait I started of my shooting with in Moka coffee, back on the 15th. I had been awkward at the time, first portrait and all that, and not sure how it would go, had no doubt been worried I was intruding on him somewhat at the time, but now, relaxed as I was after a day’s shooting, he seemed more open, and I gave him the questionnaire, and he suggested meeting for a chat tomorrow. Sure.

20th October

You know the more I do this project the more I’m convinced that my natural inclination for laziness is working in my favour. Take today for example. I slept in, had been extra tired last night for some reason, two or three days of walking around in 30 degree heat and humidity laden with tripods and a bulky Kiev caught up with me. So I got up late, checked email and what not, left the hostel at a tardy 1 pm, and headed across town to Tianxiu for 2pm, having planned to do all the other stuff such as bank transfers,and picking up scans etc, beforehand. But later it was to be. The guy wasn’t there in any case. No problem. So bank done, went to Tianhe area, only to be told the scans weren’t ready anyway. Honestly, you will not keep your sanity in China if you are not amenable to the “tomorrow” ethos. On the other hand they will chew your balls off if you are late without an excuse. The key is to practice your excuses. Sometimes vague appeals to shit happening are the best, which is what I got from the soon to be returner of late film. You said three days, no you said two I said two possibly three, so three it became, thus it was my fault. But a good guy. I swap three rolls of Provia100 I bought last week for his last three rolls of provia 400, as far as I know the last three in Guangzhou.

Over to Sanyuanli then by about 6:30pm, packed in like a sardine on the metro. Unlike my previous wander around Sanyuanli, I have directions this time, and in fact find the CanNa or JiaNa Market very easily by the two hundred or so Africans standing around outside discussing. Talking and discussing is really pivotal to the general culture it seems. It’s a good thing I guess. I go inside. It’s end of day messy, paper adverts & bags of abandoned takeaways everywhere. At the back a group of guys are counting money, lots of it by the looks of it. I’m concious of my own recent bank withdrawal still being carried on me. “Hey, what you looking for ?”, the tone seemed non-committal, but anything but neutral. I explained. They were fine with me though. I gave them the sheets, they were mostly Nigerians, so no use for my new photocopies in French. The whole market was run by Nigerians apparently, more so than the others, Chinese were definitely the minority here. They were closing up though, tomorrow would be better, although right now, exactly now, was ideal for getting them all in one place. I handed out half my paperwork. Went upstairs and handed out the rest, 30 sheets away in five minutes, people standing around, asking, demanding whatever information there was to be given. Easy as that. But of course, there will be no photos tomorrow without completed questionnaires…but do I really want 30 portraits from the same mall, all of Nigerians ?

I head across the road, this strip on either side of Guangyuan Xi Lu really is as much of a focal point complete with “hang-outs” as the Tianxiu-Dengfeng-Xiatang hub. It’s almost too much. It expands the scope of my project yet again, confuses me, presents me with another distraction, but if I’m handing out sheets so easily, I might as well pursue it for a day at least. I nip into a tiny netbar/copy shop and translate my main project description sheet into French and replenish my supplies of sheets lost in the last market. Get speaking to Africans also on the computers, they’re from Liberia. They like my project, but not sure about a photo, will get back to me. I sense they won’t. I ask an African woman and she ignores me. The Liberian guy repeats my question, and she ignores him, again dismissively rather than shyly. I tell myself it’s nothing to do with my maleness or my whiteness, she’s just got an attitude problem, today at least.

I set my camera up on its tripod and head back out into the street. On one hand it’s going to startle people, on the other hand, I’m being upfront about my intentions. I figure that having the camera out, and respecting their wishes in not using it, and coming back if needs be, is better than keeping it concealed, making contact, then springing the camera. I approach a group of about 15 guys hanging out on makeshift seats by a small shop. The light is fantastic at this spot, multi-directional with fluorescent, tall tungsten streetlights from the raised motorway, and a wash of neon The lighting alone could almost place it in China. My photographer’s urge is killing me, but I’ve got to be patient. I introduce myself to a guy sitting on the wall. Someone in the middle shouts something derogatory in an African language, but the others silence him, tell him to shut up, listen to what I have to say first before judging me, or words to that effect. This makes me a little more relaxed. I’m trying to balance being confident with seeming too glib and salesmanish. I notice they’re talking English to each other. They’re all from Nigeria and South Africa apparently, the biggest and wealthiest African countries. I start handing forms out. The same happens, crowd forms round me, passers by with hand out, all paperwork gone in five minutes. They’re not sure about photos though. One guy says ok, but I had five guys asking for forms at that time, and would have kept being hassled until they had forms in their hands. Same deal though, many paranoid as hell about what the Chinese authorities might potentially do with a photo of them, but two or three quite glad to speak away, told me come back tomorrow, they’ll go away and think about answers to write, and then we can maybe take some photos. Another guy advises me to watch out myself for trouble with police, if I’m taking photos in China. And my ability to empathise and talk of my own, genuine, worry about running foul of some arbitary clampdown, helps give me some common ground with the African guys. I tell them about police coming round my door twice in a month before the Olympics, and my website getting blocked…but still, they really seem to have some pretty entrenched attitudes towards China, they seem to be having some real negative experiences at the hands of authorities. I can well believe it, but I also reserve a little judgement. Is it maybe just because of a larger community of Africans, so more incidents, and more stories ? Or are they perhaps all just going through that phase all foreigners in China go through once the honeymoon has worn off but before proper integration and acceptance is yet to happen. How much Chinese have they learnt ? How many other parts of the city have they been to ? Whatever, it makes me more resolved to get the perspective of more longer-term Africans as well.

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Guangzhou Diary: Week 3 Written on October 21, 2008, by .

12th Oct

I’m feeling a little more sprightly, and feel I need a change of scene after being “stuck” fairly inactive at the hostel. I move hostels, to a small hotel 10 minutes walk from Xiaobei. I’ll probably have to move back to the Youth Hostel again, as prices rise during the GuangzhouFair, but for now it’s good being right in the city as opposed to the “wrong” side of the river with the 11:30 pm closing subway my only life-support.

Through the Douban group, I hear of another camera place out east in Tianhe district, Dongcheng 3G computer plaza, and I pay a visit, manage to track down that supply of Provia 400. Then I go back to Dashatou and pick myself up a cheap but sturdy tripod, reflector, cable release. I forgot to buy a light meter though. Will have to go back tomorrow, a trip I could do without making…

Crash out in the evening in my first single hotel room of the trip so far. I leave the air-con off. It had been a little too cold on occasion in the dorms I’m feeling better but suddenly exhausted from several days of trying to work through a flu-ish headcold.

13th Oct

Get my first real uninterrupted sleep in a while. Birthday treat to myself. Still choked up with the cold, but my forehead is dry. No fever ? Might just be the weather? Write up note for photocopying and giving to portrait subjects, then nip back across town to the Dashatou Market for a light meter, and I’m ready to go. As if”nipping”across town is possible in a city this size.

I get a taxi down to there ok, in the shops within 20 minutes, takes me another twenty to find a light meter, but then the rain comes on, proper tropical rain again, seemingly no taxis for the way back. End up walking, waiting in likely places, getting wetter, feet squeaking like rubber rats in my foam flip-flops, queueing for subway tickets from the machine but give up, there surely must be a taxi, run back upstairs, out of breath - must still be more ill than I thought and a lump of phlegm coalesces after a grunt or two. Nope, even traffic cops says not much chance of getting a cab, back down I go, tickets, tickets, just miss the next train, the flip-flops not squeaking so much, give them their due they do dry surprisingly quickly, but back out ten minutes later squeaking again, dodging from overhead balcony to the next, stopping for coconut ice, in and out of people’s way, buffeted by umbrellas, quick run to catch the last few seconds of the green man, flip-flops flapping, leaps and bounds, some kind of centrifugal force to keep them from accepting the fate gravity has in store for them, stuck behind an old man, back to the bit where my ice lolly broke three hours earlier, and finally, five minutes from the hotel, the heavens shift up a gear, and I duck in for some chicken rice (…and perhaps also chickened out of some duck rice ?)

It’s now 6pm. Day’s gone matey. Told you. Torrential rain and no umbrella keeps me in all evening. I crash out knackered early on then stay awake half the night.

14th Oct

My cold is more or less away. I look again at my note for giving out. Its shit. I need to rewrite it. takes me a while to get it as I want it. End up staying in hotel until afternoon. Head out later to pick up new shiny paper business cards, and explore for possible portrait locations. Decide not to do”locations”, it’ll all be environmental portraits but of specifically people doing business here longer term, people on resident visas. I also get my project explanation note printed out. Try to get an early night to rebalance my sleeping pattern. Buy some medicinal sleeping capsules. Bed at 12pm, but still cant sleep till 2am.

15th Oct

Sleeping pills, after they kick in, mean I sleep through all alarms set. Totally drowsy still at midday. Like drunk drowsy. I can barely think. Head fuzzy. My Chinese is awful. Double espresso needed. Walk to Starbucks at Gongyuanqian subway stop even though Nongjiangsuo subway stop is 15 minutes closer. I’m moving back to the hostel because the hotel near Xiaobei has bumped its prices up for the canton fair. The hostel has also bumped up its prices, but they were less to start with.

Finally get back across town and start shooting portraits for real on Provia 400, seems ok. Postcard idea seems to work, I try at Moka then speak to “visitor”Africans upstairs at Tianxiu, they’re worried about visas and police, and any way their image could be used against them. Understandable. It has to be residents really, others don’t seem to want photos taken at all, are some perhaps in the country illegaly ? Over in Dongfeng, I start asking around again, set up to take a portrait of a Nigerian couple who own a store, the prospect of a double portrait sounds good. Unfortunately I’m interrupted by a phone call before I’m fully set up, at the same time as security comes round doing what Chinese security does best, being assholes. Some guy picks up my cable release and asks “what’s this ?” and suddenly it doesn’t work, jammed closed. I get pretty annoyed by this and go looking for him, fruitlessly. I should’ve known. I end up annoying the security guard a little I think by my demands of “Chinese-style” compensation for the cost of replace the broken cable release. He says he doesn’t know the guy, he doesn’t work here, just a customer. It’s possible, although he wouldn’t have had time to pick it up if I hadn’t been being hassled by security at the time. Ok, I drop it, apologise for my ranting, and head off up the street. I first check out a small bar. It’s all Chinese inside. Doesn’t look like much going on. Apparently some Africans sometimes come down later. Then I head up Tongxin Lu to an African resturaunt.

The food is great. I get speaking to another guy sitting at the same table. He’s from Angola. I don’t even try to take photos, just drink beer instead, he really likes what I wrote in my note. We get into a pretty deep conversation. He taks about the idea of gaps. Reckons the presence of Africans at all in Guangzhou means there must be an opportunities here – Africans are good at find gaps. The gaps were in Thailand before, currently China, they can easily be somewhere else next. Although for him, he’s married a Chinese woman and has a kid with her. He tells me she feels more free whenever she visits Angola. He paints quite a rosy picture of his country, nominally “communist” government he says, but noting like China’s. There’s nothing special about China, and he bemoans Chinese business ethics, says many of the Africans deported were stuck here unable to afford a flight home, after their supplier gave them dodgy products which they couldn’t sell, then said basically tough shit, what u gonna do, hire a lawyer ? Also the officious nature of authority here drives most of the Africans crazy, he says, just as cops bust in to the restauraunt do random checks, there’s a bit of a fuss, some guy from through the back is summoned, produces a passport, things calm down. We walk to car, meet his Chinese wife, she’s not impressed, he’s late. We insists we go to meet his other Angolan friends who are in a Brazilian barbecue restaurant rest of Angolans in and I jump in the car. We’re a little late, they’re off somewhere else, next time he says and we swap details before I jump in a taxi back, a taxi ride that completely negates the saving I make from shifting back to the hostel.

16th Oct

Morning and afternoon spent on Wikipedia research. Read up on the consensed history of Liberia & Angola, stray into a few other countries too. If I’m going to meet these guys again I’ve got to get my basic facts on Africa together.

Angola is interesting, received 2 billion aid from China, no.1 supplier of China’s oil, nominally “communist” government that owns mineral assets but allows, encourages private enterprise, economy growing at 25-30 % a year, skyscrapers sprouting, mini-China ?

I’ll keep doing portraits, but perhaps focus on the Angolans too, if I can. It’d be a good way to combine the DSLR work, and if this guy is anything to go by, there seems neither much of a linguistic nor cultural barrier, although Portuguese is thir first language.

Head out later, back to Dashatou to buy another cable release. That evening, playing around with it myself, the same problem occurs. It jammed shut, or open. I can’t seem to get it working. I’m thinking it must be a product fault rather than that guy breaking it. Need to head back to Dashatou again…like I don’t have better things to do…

17th Oct

Told my cable release isn’t actually broken, just locked. They show me how to unlock it. Simple when you know how…I head straight to Xiaobei afterwards to take more portraits. I still have that Nigerian portrait that I definitely want to take there. The guard of the centre immediately gets on his walky-talky when I walk in with my tripod, I look at him, and he acts as if he saw nothing. Someone else arrives and follows me around. They’ve sent the supervisor apparently, he’s a real asshole on a power trip. Stands there looking stern, arms folded, I mirror his pose, the other more junior security guards behind him stifle laughs. He pretends he doesn’t hear them, and makes to stand even firmer. The Nigerian guy is busy talking to someone anyway. Will have to persuade them to go to a location outside. He seemed friendly though, so likely no problems. Get a business card of another African guy, an older guy, sitting, he suggests the other of the two Dongfeng trading centres, the security here are known among the Africans apparently for giving needless hassle.

More portraits over in the other mall. Security guy is friendly. I seem to misplace my reflector and new cable release though, check all over, must be somewhere.

Take a cab back down to Dashatou, again, luckily I now have a spare cable release but I need a new reflector. Shop is closed. Developing shop still open. Told it takes two days to develop E6 film. Maybe I’ll try Tianhe instead. Not now though, I’m going to take a leisurely stroll over the Pearl River to the south side…

18th Oct

An afternoon of consolidating ideas, I mean even 15 portraits, plus quotes, and then 10-15 good photos telling the story of the Angolans, or some other defined community, that should be enough. Enough for the MA, maybe not enough for the ultimate final project to my exact satisfaction, but at any rate the postcard idea isn’t necessarily working as I’d hoped. I write out a questionnaire instead to give them, I can select good quotes to put on the page opposite the portrait, along with business cards too of course…

I head to Tianhe district, stick film in for developing and scanning, E6 so takes a couple of days here too, what the hell, I’ve got little choice but to stick it in. Even if Tianhe is further away its right at a subway stop, not half hour walk like to Dashatou, and there’s a useful bus right back to Xiaobei. Buy another reflector.

Head back to Xiaobei to print out questonnaire, realise i’ve saved it on my USB drive as the wrong file type, non compatible word document. Can’t print it. Bollocks. Need to go back to the hostel and change it. Three hour return trip if I was to try.  This is why I need to be living closer. Take a portrait anyway, but it seems silly not being fully prepared there and then and always telling people I’ll need to go back with the form next day. Head back to subway Line 1, bane of my life, via the Taoci mansion, which I haven’t explored before. Not much that Tianxiu or the Dongfeng malls don’t have, and out of the way too, smaller than Tianxiu as well.

Decide to try and translate the form into French as well, using online translation…maybe I can get a French speaker to fine-tune it. This will hopefully open up possibilities with people from Congo and other French-speaking areas.

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Guangzhou Diary: Week 2 Written on October 16, 2008, by .

5th October

Weather fine. Productive Day. Go to Xiaobei area, and explore the entire Tianxiu Building from top to bottom. Starting in the lower mall section, I chat away to a few Chinese shopkeepers. I find out about the human hair for African hair extensions is mostly cut from heads of Indian girls, no mention of the price it is bought for, but no doubt a bit less than the 220Yuan its sold for. I find my way up into the bowels of the Tianxiu building, via the reception at the back, complete with fancy black Mercs outside, neon lights, and pretty Chinese reception staff. I ask if there’s a manager I can speak to. She looks confused, tells me there are lots of managers, and lots of offices, go up and see. They seemingly didn’t care about foreigners wandering around with cameras.

Up on the 33rd floor, I could see why. The grand facade of ground level had been replaced by the general dinginess and strange smells of a used Chinese tower block. I wandered up the stairs to the plant room and other facilities on the 34th floor. The plaster was all destroyed were rain had been blowing in the open window. I climbed out. I’m on the roof it seems. The sun had set since I first entered the building. Nothing to see really, just a few hundred more skyscrapers lit up across the city. I took a couple of shots down to the Huanshi ring road and beyond it the dark dense blob of Xiatang village among the surrounding bright lights. There was a wind blowing through. Being up on the roof of a strange dilapidated high-rise in the twighlight has a definite B-movie thriller feel. Visibility wasn’t good that evening and I headed back inside before my imagination began to warm up.

Inside the dingy bare hall there was a scale model of Tianxiu Building, made presumably for advertising the building back when it was first built, complete with figures sitting around the swimming pool – yes, an open-air pool on perhaps the 5th floor, on top of the mall section, hidden from street view, but facing the afternoon sun. Some of the signs had been broken off the model, and the clear perspex case it was housed in was broken, yellowed and covered in a layer of dust. I walked back down to the top of the lift-shaft on the 33rd floor.

It was home to a logistics and shipping company. Glossy adverts on the wall, specialists in shipping across Africa and Asia. I wandered into the cooridors. It was the only office left occupied. One or two looked like they had never been occupied, others were abandoned, dusty and derilict. Other doors looked used, and well-kept, but locked. The way down to the 32nd floor was by fire escape. A bin was in the corner, piled up with rubbish. The wall above it was filthy with dried splats of rotten food, and other-semi-liquids. I walked down.

The story was much the same right down the floors Most floors had at least one unit still occupied, usually the ones nearest the lift shaft. One or two floors even had full occupancy, with several offices, from inside which came roars of laughter, and TVs, overtime and after hours chilling out. Still, among these vestiges of business and commerce, with all the flyers, adverts, phone numbers that go with it, was a general sense of dinginess and urban decay. Some of the floors had strange smells, the smell of windows unopened for months, years. Then came floors 23 to 19, the hotel. They were the hotel, well kept, bright, with a red carpet, but I’m not sure I’d want to live there after viewing floor 24. Down from that, there was a succession of busier floors, with some offices even decorating the walls “outside”their doors, a few African countries’ flags were hung up. Then came floor 14, another “dead” floor. Abandoned, and in a hurry too by the looks of it. As I looked through one office to the fancy mirrored window that fronted onto Xiaobei Road, a rat scurried from left to right along one of the bars across the window. Nice. Difficult for me to do a real positive story in such a location I think…

Down on the 5th floor I came to the swimming pool, empty of course. I could see now that Tianxiu Building was in fact three buildings linked in an L-shape. The central tower contained offices, and empty offices, the other two apartments. A group of Chinese were sitting chatting on the far side of the empty pool. I chatted to them.

They told me a little about the building. It is about 9 years old, built in 1999, in the white tile style, (except the tiles are pink). They reckoned flats would rent for between 2000-3000 Yuan a month, depending on their size, offices for 4500 Yuan a month, so a cheaper than a brand new block over in the new Tianhe financial district, but hardly a cheap-rent ghetto. They also reckoned 80% of the residents were foreign, still, even after the Olympics. They said those living here would mostly be on legitimate permits. They also said the pool does sometimes have water in the height of summer when its 38 degrees every day.

All in all then, a real mixed-use building in every sense of the word. I took the lift back to ground level, went for a Cucumber Juice and an African-style fried Chicken at the Lounge coffee, competitor to Moka coffee, and then called it a day. Photos to follow…

6th October

I head back to the Xiatang “urban village” side of Xiaobei, and wander up the street, with my camera this time, trying to take a few street shots. Every time I lift my camera, an African head gives me a look. This is not at all like photographing Chinese. I keep the shots casual, and distant, so as not to be of anyone in particular. There are plenty interesting details that capture the atmosphere of the area, signs for African food, signs for Halal meat etc. I feel so hesitant though, and take nothing of substance. Shooting Chinese in the street I have the language to get me out of sticky situations. Even if my Chinese isn’t great, I speak enough, and with enough of a vernacular “Northern” twang, to show that I’ve invested enough time here to probably not be wanting to harm China in any way. If I get into that situation where I go to shoot, and they don’t like it (it happens – some people just don’t like their photos being taken, my own mother is an example), then with the Africans I’ll be apologising in English, my language, and if theirs too, only because of imperialist history. I can’t afford to be that insensitive. Shooting in my candid style is always done best when almost unconcious. It’s about being aggressively empathetic - sensing people’s emotions, but somehow being impervious to their effect. It’s not happening here though. I’m too affected by the looks of suspicion and lose my concentration.

A shopkeeper calls me over. He’s a friendly gregarious sort of guy, from Shantou, so Cantonese isn’t his first language. Neither is Mandarin but he speaks it clearly enough. He offers me some tea, and of course I except. He’s a goldmine of info on the local area, tells me about the situation last year, with 100,000 Africans in the city, many congregated on his street, and he’d made friends with a lot of them, they’d come to buy beer at his shop, and drink with him. He was learning English to be able to speak better, and seemed quite proud to have made links with foreigners. I helped him a little with his pronunciation, and generally chilled out for an hour. He had a go with my camera, liked the wideness of the lens. His description made me realise just how much it had changed since then – the Olympics to blame apparently. I went through all the other place names that I had originally found, and he was sceptical about Africans still being at most of them. One place worth exploring though perhaps – a district called Sanyuanli. Good to know there’s a little shop like this I can come back to, although I should really come back with a native speaker to really properly communicate. On the other hand, there’s something more chilled about communicating through a partial-language barrier over a cup of tea.

Shortly after that I get called to by two African guys standing on the side of the street. I’ve no idea what they want but say hello. They tell me they’re from Liberia, the only African country to have come from a USA colony. Are they telling me proudly or not ? It’s new to me anyway, I know about the long civil war, and George Weah running for president, but little else, none of the real background to it. My ignorance on African history is going to catch me out with this project if I don’t start reading up. I joke “aren’t we all part of the American empire these days ?” They kinda laugh. I think maybe they’d thought I was an American. I offer my hand to shake and I think they’re a little surprised, but return the shake. They’re ok with me it seems, here on some kind of official government exchange but waiting to see if it gets the go-ahead, here to learn how to build/re-build a country, and (in their words) to learn from the Chinese how to control people. I don’t think they intended the phrase to sound. I presume they meant “pacifying a fractuous and volatile society fresh from a bloody civil war”. They suggest food & beer sometime. I’m hungry, so how about now, I say. Ok, sure, they weren’t that hungry but could eat something.

We eat a little, split a beer, chat for an hour or so. They were paying 1200 Yuan a month for rent, and were waiting for some kind of approval to start some kind of exchange at Guangzhou University. The older guy was quiet, but the younger guy was quite vocal and outspoken. Interesting and smart guys, and they carried themselves differently from the others somehow – perhaps because they didn’t have the status of merchants. They seemed really clued up on the power of the image, imagined geographies etc, with barely any prompting, the younger guy basically gave me an overview of all the Term One issues while the older guy nodded and corrected him once or twice. We agreed to meet again and exchanged phone numbers. They had one phone, under the older guy’s name, Alex. Customs apparently. It was clear it was the younger guy who preferred talking. They were sitting against the wall, surrounded by chopsticks and with Chinese-style tablecloth. It was a photo. It absolutely was, but with what purpose. That purpose worried them too. I asked if I could take it. They said, no,no, we don’t know you well enough, maybe next time. Next time it was then. I discussed with them the attitudes to photography in Africa, and they said portraits are ok, but none of that paparazzi stuff, it’s more civilised to ask first. We in the West might dismiss such attitudes as being representative of an unadvanced “photographic culture”, but isn’t there also an element of truth in what they say ? What our brash post-modern Western society may have gained in tolerance, it may also have lost in courtesy and civility. What would Bruce Gilden say of it all ?

I continued on my way, took a few more photos, and then called it a night.

7th October

Day of research online.

Based on what the people I spoke to yesterday said, I’ve decided to change the course of my project. The story is basically that the community is not actually here right now. It’s the absence and the idea of a community split, that I will have to try and photograph. I also spend time researching other approaches to projects in tower blocks & in Africa & of minorities, foreigners etc. The South African “Mr.Mhikize” series by Broomberg & Chanarin is notable, although a bit hit and miss I’d say in how effective it is, and also in Africa, I look at the approach to documenting the Ponte Tower in Johannesburg. I also find some documentaries about Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong, in many ways the precursor to Guangzhou’s Tianxiu. Unable to watch any though - connection is so bloomin slow on the hostel wireless, can’t get anything on Youtube.

Noting also Broomberg & Chanarin’s “ghetto” series, and their mental patient self-portraits, I consider allowing subject to photograph themselves, at the very least some kind of offer of inter activity is key, but maybe giving them their own choice of background will work better ? Would self-portraits with a self-timer be patronising on mentally functioning, able bodied people ?

In other news, I think I’m getting a cold. I can feel it – it’s barely a week since I thought I had kicked the last one – that’s travel and dormitory living for you, huh.

8th October

Ok, so for the new portrait approach, I figure I need the following.

Camera gear:

Medium Format Camera (second-hand)

100asa and 400asa 120 film

Reflector

Tripod

Shutter Release Cable

Light meter

Others:

Postcards, for people writing a short note on

Business cards

Photocopied notes explaining my project

Stapler, for stapling the note and business card together.

Good pens that “write well” and supply ink at a constant flow (surprisingly hard to find in China).

I head out in afternoon and look for Dashatou, the place that the guy at the photography exhibition told me about, where I should be able to buy cheapish second hand medium format cameras. I have me Holga with me, but Holga shots wont do the subjects justice. It looks like a toy, that’s the problem. I do my usual of making a list of all the likely suspects for researching online. A fever comes on strongish in evening. It’s definitely a cold, and it serves me right for going out and getting soaked. As if that’s not bad enough I find out later I find out that Professor Yang, one of the founders of the PhotoMA up in Dalian, has died in a car crash.

I almost get into a fight with someone over the most stupid of things – someone spraying mosquito repellent in the dormitory. Somehow it remains a shouting match of idle threats and no blows are landed. The others in the hostel tell me afterwards he’s an ex-con with an anger management problem. I certainly can’t sleep now though and sit outside the hostel chatting familiar hostel chat until 4am. End up mildly drunk.

9th October

My nose is streaming and I’m fevered. My forehead is soaked. It might also be particularly humid today, but I can’t really tell. I might also be slightly hungover. Apart from researching various cameras online, and an hour spent designing a business card, it’s a wasted day really. I don’ t feel like doing anything in any case. The shock of Yang is still sinking in, I didn’t know him as well as some, but I still feel I’m zoning out, unable to pinpoint any thoughts. I go out late afternoon and wander around the city, in the general direction of Sanyuanli. I’m still ill. I’m really not well enough to be out exploring, but I need to be out on my feet. It’s an interesting “urban village”, I speak to some people, same story, last year there were loads of Africans living there, but now seemingly none. It reaffirms my conviction that until the community returns, it needs to be a portrait project. The other approach really requires me to come and live in Guangzhou,work away slowly on various stories in a candid style, unless something is still to jump out and present itself to me.

10th October

I’m still kinda runny nose, sore throat, fatigued, but go back to the camera market and shoot trial rolls on a Mamiya 645 from 1977 with Sekkor 80mm lens & a Kiev 60 (1950s ?) with a Biometar 60mm Carl Zeiss Jena lens on it. The Mamiya is 2000 Yuan, the Kiev 990 Yuan. I just use Superia for the trial, out and about in the street nearby, nothing special taken, then stick them in for developing. Then I head back to the Xiaobei district. Firstly to get business cards made. I sea place, might find more, keep walking…then start asking about the whereabouts of Guangzhou Unversity. I want to find a photography department that might have students wanting to practice their English, discuss a little about photography, and thus accompany me for a little translation, or even just to do things like set up tripods while I talk, or vice versa. I find out the university has moved since the most recent maps were printed. I get pointed in the direction of one or two other unis. The business cards slip my mind and I walk for a bit to find these other unis. Can’t seem to find the entrances, lose enthusiasm for the idea anyway. Head back to the hotel, join the Chinese creative social networking site douban.com group “Guangzhou photographers” and leave a note about fixers, and also about 400asa film.

11th October

I’m still feeling ill, but perhaps over the worst. I normally rest when I’m ill, I don’t try to work my way through it, I find my creative drive is really blocked, my critical judgement gone. I look at photos I processed two days ago, just street photos, they’re rubbish. Just badly done. Why would a cold stop my eyes from being sensitive in this way ? But the fact I’m seeing this today must mean my judgement is coming back, which is good since I need to return to Dashatou to get the results of the film back. Both look ok from the negatives. I get a few images scanned. Kiev looks richer in colour, and crisper too. Quickly post-process them. Yup, has to be the Kiev. With that Zeiss lens on it, it just looked better straight from the scan than the Mamiyua, however nice the Mamiya might have been to use. I look at the cameras again. I can’t decide. The Mamiya feels so good in the hand compared to the Kiev, but Zeiss glass…

I buy the Kiev.

I then head back across the city to Xiaobei again, bulky Kiev in tow. I know I can get business cards made there cheaply and quickly. I saw the little kiosk the other day. I can probably get them made in other places too, such as Dashatou, but I know for sure I can find some in Xiaobei. I also go back to Moka Coffee, and discuss with them about telling people I shoot that they can pick up copies of their portraits at Moka coffee. It helps me, it helps Moka. I Buy another kebab as well, of course…

Check douban.com.  I’ve recieve a warm welcome from the community. They’re a helpful bunch. I should be able to find a fixer, if I need one. I also find the address of a place that apparently might have 400asa film.

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Guangzhou Diary: Week 1 Written on October 4, 2008, by .

4th Oct

It’s torrential rain outside. Maybe not a good day to go out exploring. Spent the morning online, updated my diary, and pondered. Ok, here’s what I have so far as a project outline. If the rain eases off, I’ll go in search of the camera market…

Intimate short documentary pieces of maybe ten pages, following the lives of four or five key figures:

    a) Chinese Hui Restaurant owner offering Islamic food primarily to Africans/Arabs, shots of buying the Halal food, working in the restaurant, also going to the mosque.

    b) An African small business owner in Tianxiu who has “settled” and provides a service to other Africans – hairdresser would be good – visually interesting. Business cards might be interesting too, if the business card is included, prominent and readable.

    c) A Chinese business owner in Tianxiu offering African products “Made in China”, traditional African clothing is good. Human Hair extensions of Chinese hair for attatching to African heads is obscenely good.

    d) Find the Africans who are living not in the hotels but the low-rent slum labarynth. Their lives, even if they are boring and uneventful, will be interesting, because of where they are. Why is slumming it in China better than whatever it was they were doing in Africa ? How does the rest of the African community, who stay in the nice hotels, view them ? It’s also a window into a fascinating neighbourhood.

    e) Canton trade fair is coming up. Follow an African merchant here on a short trip, specifically for that event, from arrival to departure, also capture the buzz of the fair.

    f) Perhaps follow the life and daily work of the Tianxiu Building’s General Manager, who will be a Chinese. There must be someone or a group of staff who have such a job.

Ideally I will weave a web of documenting people and places that interlink and overlap, with locations and even people appearing in more than one person’s story.

I might also take street portraits of Africans out and about in the area, on the overpass, outside Tianxia, in the hardcore Chinese slum alley with the restaurants, outside McDonalds etc…

These would be done with a medium format camera & tripod: Usual details, name, age, country, time in China, purpose of travel, goods bought, plus some personal question. A few such portraits throughout the book would break up the other candid shots taken on a DSLR.

3rd Oct

My legs are tired from spending eight hours a day for the last two days walking around the streets. Have a day off from exploring that area. Sleep late, transfer out of the staff-dorms into proper guest dorms, and spend the afternoon online. I research the abbreviated history of Islam in Guangzhou. Seems the Mosque was built back in the Tang Dynasty by the 100,000 strong Arabic trading community in Guangzhou, a pre-Islamic community that was converted to Islam IN CHINA by the spread of Islam to China, influenced of course by the arrival of other Arabs who brought their new religion with them, but no doubt also by the adoption of Islam among Chinese, the ancestors of today’s Hui. In many ways the Africans and Arabs coming to Guangzhou today mirrors events of the past. The historical precedent definitely adds another layer of significance to the multi-worshipping of Africans, Arabs and Chinese together in the mosque. I want to find the mosque now, and go off with the directions the restaurant owner gave me the previous night to find it, plus other, slightly contrasting location information I find from the internet. I find the old ancient 1400-year old mosque, it’s closed, and the street around it is hardly lively. A couple of Hui restaurants, but hardly different from the rest of Guangzhou. I have a feeling there may be two mosques, this old one, and a modern one, in use.

I’d also been flicking through a Guangzhou listings magazine and came across what seemed a cool art-space, currently holding an exhibition. Well, I could go back to the hostel, or else jump in the tube and try to find it. Find it I did, after a couple of circles. Very expensive coffee and beer, but imported Deutschland wheat beer, so that’s ok. I indulged, and found a nice collection of photography books, stuff from Magnum, Japanese stuff etc. But for the price of coffee and location south of the river, I’d make it my “base”, but it would be an OK place to try and put on an exhibition. I spoke with the cafe-space’s owner, a photographer himself, and he gave me direction to Guangzhou’s answer to Wukesong in Beijing. If I want to do more portraits, I might find myself buying another second-hand Seagull TLR and tripod down here. I’m sure I can sell them again. I also inquired about good fixers/translators, but he wasn’t really a documentary photographer. He suggested Guangzhou university though. He also suggested there were more areas with Africans than just Xiaobei, but couldn’t remember where…just when I was ready to drop that idea…

I walked aimlessly back to the hostel along wide boulevards and through old neighbourhood lanes. I wasn’t sure when the subway stopped running, but was aiming for the Huangsha station 3 km distant. I ended up taking a taxi back to the hostel

Got back to the hostel. Heard from another guest about a different hostel near the train station. That would be less comfortable I’m sure, but most of my online research has been done for now, and it would certainly be closer. I feel a bit isolated across here, needing to take a subway to get anywhere. If I moved hostel I’d be within walking distance of Xiaobei area. I’d eat three meals a day meals there.

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2nd Oct

I sleep late. I’m currently living in a little nocturnal underworld of my own, i.e the windowless staff dormitories. It’s easy to sleep late. Like midday late. I make it to the bank before it shuts, and return to the hostel to pay my way, and deposit my couple of thousand in cash semi-safely before I go exploring any more unlit alleyways. I get back to the Xiaobei-Tianxia area before dark, and take in a much wider area than my previous day’s walk-through. I’m now partly looking for potential leads into the project, people who stand out. I explore the whole bottom four floors of the Tianxia Building trading market. It’s mostly bored Chinese girls standing in glass boxes lined with clothes, waiting for customers. African customers move around, some are chatting. Honestly, the majority of these shops are not all that interesting. Apart from the customers being African, it’s not much different from other such malls all over China. One or two stalls stand out though, offering African traditional dresses and robes, that could only be for the African market. They must also of course be Made in China. This is a potential lead, to follow the production cycle of these clothes, from factory, to shop, to customer, to suitcase, to airport. Where do they get their designs from ? Is it speculative on the part of the Chinese, or are they made to order ? Another possible lead from inside Tianxia trading centre itself is the one or two stalls run by Africans, offering both goods and services to the community. Another shop offers human hair extensions, not sure whether the hair is Chinese or African (they have clearly put roots here in Tianxia…). I read online about the presence of an African hairdressing salon. I definitely want to find this too. Hairstyles are much more visually applicable than business cards…especially if a Chinese customer got African hair extensions…in China, it’s not impossible to contemplate such a new trend emerging…I need to find out if the hair is Chinese or African. If Chinese, now that would be an fantastic story. Hard-up long-haired Chinese students making an extra buck by going under the shear. Another product-cycle, a new trend for short hair ?

I stop for a coffee in the Moka Coffee shop on the ground floor of Tianxia, hoping that the Turkish owner would be there to chat with, but she isn’t. All the staff are Chinese, the guy who tends the skewer outside defnitely looks North China, so he’s probably Hui Muslim, the female waitresses inside talk Cantonese, and appear to look local too. I order an excellent Arabian tiramisu-style desert. I need to replenish the calories from all the walking somehow…

I walk over the ring-road to the livelier district again, explore more of the labarynth/slum/urban village. I chat to a couple of Mandarin-speakers. One tells me there are foreigners living here too. I ask him if they are African. He says yes. Well, that’s another potential lead into the story, if I can only find where they are living. However the other guy I speak to tells me its all Chinese living in the labarynth. Is this lack of knowledge, or cultural embarassment that his host country would have foreigners living in such circumstances ? Apart from lack of daylight, conditions are not so bad though. It’s not squalid. It seems to have sewerage, and is generally well swept and clear of litter. There is however very little privacy, but perhaps still more than the average youth hostel dormitory ? I take a break from the Xiaobei area, wander east, realise it’s all fairly uninteresting tenements and office towers, start to head back, and stop at one of the tea stalls for some cold bitter tea. A guy strikes up a conversation with me in English. He’s from Hong Kong, here for the Canton Trade Fair on the 15th. Nice. Knowing this could be useful. Pivotal in fact. Might be of no use at all. But isn’t it strange how random bits of information are borne of the most random of actions. Back in Xiaobei I look for a restaurant to eat at. I’m thinking that the Hui Muslim angle will be useful to explore. I find such a restaurant, the Abdullah Islamic restaurant, run by a Hui Chinese. All the waitresses are Hui Muslim, wearing the little hat (I forget its name). It’s full of Africans, and Pakistanis, and curiously, a table of Koreans. The owner speaks good English, and is the sort of outgoing character you might expect a restauranteur to be. He’s curious about Islam in the UK, and we chat for five to ten minutes. He teaches me some useful words in Chinese, like Muslim, Mosque, Church,and gives me some directions to the mosque. He may be another potential lead to follow. Perhaps better than the Moka Coffee. I wonder how much of a change in his personal attitudes towards his religion there has been upon being reunited with the wider Islamic community. If the Hui now share their mosque with the Africans and Arabs, then this would be a good thing to show visually, assuming I am allowed in with a camera. I call it a night and walk home, west via Huanshi road. There doesn’t seem to be anything happening African-wise round that area, although I will head closer to the train station next time and check there. Still no word of any Hongqiao district, or indeed any “villages around the airport”/ I’m thinking the “village” referred to online must be the Xiatang slum, opposite Tianxia building. As for the other streets that apparently offered cheap rent for 100-200 Yuan, Yongping Street for example, no sign of them, not on any maps, and nobody knows where it is. Maybe it’s time to just forget this online info completely, and begin to trust my own findings.

1st Oct

I spend the morning online, picking through all the articles on the subject I have for Chinese placenames, and trying to locate them on the streetmap. I don’t find anything relating to Hongqiao, and nothing in the Baiyun area that the airport is located in. Perhaps this is bad information. Another article I find mentions a building called Tianxia, on Xiaobei Road. The orginal article also mentions these names, along with a lot of others. Might be worth a try. I’m able to find Xiaobei Road on Google. Maybe if I meet Africans on Xiaobei they will know where this Hongqiao District is. I need a few days for all these place names to bed themselves down in my memory. Right now they’re still all flying around and bits of words swapping into one another.

Plan is to go to looking for Xiaobei Road and Tianxiu Building, but first I need to find a branch of the Bank of Communications, the bank I am with. I get off the subway into a crowd of shoppers unlike anything I have experienced before. I’d forgotten. It’s national day. All the banks are closed in any case. I spend my last 2 Yuan on bottled water. I’m starving, and its impossibly to walk for 100 metres in this city without being tempted into a restaurant by the food boiling or hanging outside. My only option is to go back to the hostel and try to persuade them to give me back my deposit money. Unfortunately I get to the subway station and realise my subway passcard is gone. Probably not stolen, more likely fell out when I brought my map out to look at it. The hassle of being in a new city…I should have been making my first exploration of Xiaobei Road by now, but instead I have to walk 6 km back across the city to the hostel. Big paces, passing everyone, getting belched on by ring-road fumes but just not caring. Then I realise that the only way to the other side of the river is by Tunnel. no pedestrian bridge or anything, got to take a ferry. I explain my situation, and the ticket woman tells me I can pay the 0.5 Yuan fare “next time”. Great. That small gesture probably salvages the rest of the day.

Got my deposit back in exchange for my student card, but its now 6.30 pm. After eating, and crossing the city again, I pick my way through the sprawl onto Xiaobei Road. I grab a coffee in McDonalds and see two black guys sitting among the Chinese faces, eating burgers. I go to the toilet, come back, and there’s another black guy, speaking English to his Chinese girlfriend, in an African accent. It seems I’m getting warmer. I continue up the street, and it become clear that this part of town is definitely THE part of town. By the time I reach Tianxia Building, 70 % of the faces around me are black. Some are young, and engaging in banter with the Chinese, but most are older, and business-like. Most of the signs around me are in English, although people are speaking in their own languages. It’s a sudden shock to be transported out of a feeling of Chineseness to which I am now adapted into a sense of foreign-ness so swiftly. Of course I’m used to seeing dark faces, from visiting London and Paris, and wherever, and from having friends over the years from Africa, India etc, but it’s always been in a familiar context. With the change in languages, the vibrantly coloured clothes, the perfumes, it really feels like I’ve stepped out of the China I know, and into a whole new country yet to be invented. Perhaps it would feel the same for an African suddenly hitting a Western expat bar in China, although I’m not sure there are any areas so concentrated with so many Westerners. The feeling of foreign-ness is good though. It’s what I wanted to find. It means that there is a project here worth doing. It means that simply by documenting in a raw and transparent fashion, my photos should have enough visual impact.

I move on from Tianxia Building, following the trail of Africans on an overpass over the Huanshi ring-road, under a futuristic double-tiered raised motorway, and down into a more run down neighbourhood. Elderly women from Chinese ethnic minorities, in traditional clothing, Miao perhaps, sit by the edge of the road, begging from African merchants walking past, also in traditional clothing. There are one or two larger buildings, hotels, another overseas trading mall, and then the road narrows to a lane, with small Chinese stalls on both sides. Africans everywhere, confident, dignified, and talking into mobiles. The original article I read talked of young guys arriving “off the boat” to try their luck in the new China, as if China offered them their chance to make it. Wishful thinking on behalf of a paternalistic Chinese writer perhaps ? Most of these Africans appear to have “made it” already, with or without China’s help. It definitely seems a win-win business opportunity for both sides. I notice two restaurants proclaiming “African Food”, “Fried Fish” etc. which seem to be Chinese-run, and more signs, in English, welcoming “foreign friends” and competing with one another to offer all manner of services sign printing, business-card printing, cheap flights to Africa, goods storage, shipping deals etc. A Chinese kid approaches me and tries to sell me a passport. A vendor to the right offers Halal meat. The Hui Chinese Muslim presence is noticable. It seems that as well as being an African neighbourhood this is also something like Guangzhou’s Muslim quarter. Which come first though ? Did the African Muslims and Arabs converge here because of the existing supply of Halal meat, and a mosque perhaps, or did the Hui Chinese move here from elsewhere to cater to the foreign Muslims.

I wander on, into a labarynth-like slum alley about two metres wide,, overhead a jumble of wires, and concrete balconies, and security railings, with hardly a drop of skylight from the orange city clouds reaching the ground. It’s reminicient of a Hong Kong’s infamous self-built Kowloon Walled City. I’m offered sex, fake Adidas, and phone calls from glass booths. There’s suddenly no Africans anymore, it’s all Chinese, a mix of Han and Hui. I hear more Mandarin than usual for Guangzhou, but the enclosed underworld environment, a mass of colour and light from consumer goods and neon signs is as much a rush to the senses as entering the foreign sector before. Various tunnels and alleys radiate out on either side, named and unnamed, a metre wide, faint light reflecting the presence of human activity in the shadows. I’ll save exploration of these areas for daytime, not mind you that there will be much more light. As open space beckons on the far side of the 300 metre “tunnel”, and I pass an Indian restaurant. Out on the street is another Indian bar-restaurant. I walk right, passing African, and now more Arabic faces, on the way back to the main ring-road. Lining the block, under the 60 metre stilts that support the various roads, are upmarket looking Turkish and Middle-Eastern restaurants. There’s an upmarket Xinjiang restaurant or two as well, no mere hole-in-the-wall meat-on-a-stick joint. I wonder if living and working in such a cosmopolitan part of the city makes a Uygur Muslim feel more Chinese or less ? I head back to Tianxia Building, and order a kebab-like pitta from the meat skewer being roasted outside the coffee shop on the ground floor. The owner comes out to speak with me. She’s from Turkey, has been running the coffee shop here for several years. She hurries inside again to tend to mostly African customers, but she seems friendly and approachable, and I hope to speak to her again about the area. With my kebab in hand, I wander the 20 minutes back down Xiaobei Road towards the subway station.

30th Sept

I transfer to a different youth hostel, across the river, even further from the city centre, but still on the subway line. They don’t have any dorm beds left, but have space in their staff dorms. Most importantly though, this hostel has wireless internet in its lounge and the other one didn’t. I need to sit down to do some serious research. None of the staff at the hostel seem to know anything about this Hongqiao District, or any of the streets like Yongping Jie. Part of the problem is that they will know the Cantonese pronunciation of the characters, and not the Putonghua variant. I write the characters out, and try again. No, they still don’t know it, and though they know about Africans in the city, they don’t know where.

I did see one or two Africans myself when out shopping yesterday, but haven’t seen anything so far that would come close to an African “neighbourhood”. I should maybe just stop the next African face I see and ask them, but what if they are a Londoner ? To have “racially profiled” someone like that would be embarrasing. I’m sure if the area exists I will eventually find it if I keep walking around for 10 hours a day, but I’m sure there must be quicker ways. The main Southern Metropolis Daily article talks about it being a 40 sq km area. How much of the details in this article are accurate ? Is this the size of the whole of Baiyun District, or specifically the African neighbourhood. The article suggests the latter, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was the former.

It might be useful to find a “base” in the city centre too, serving coffee and offering with wireless, not a Starbucks sort of place, but a more intimate place, where I can get to know the locals, leave my laptop safely behind the bar, maybe find fixers/translators with an interest in photography, and get in contact with the Guangzhou creative crowd. After all if the project is successful I should really try to hold an exhibition here in this city. Some Chinese friends from Dalian have texted back to me about a couple of such venues. I’m in the city centre anyway, and may as well go in search of one place. It’s ok, has live music in the evenings, but not really the sort of place to hang out daytime, and a bit out of the way as well. I’m running out of money and need to find a bank machine.

29th Sept

Get sorted out, cleaned up, clothes washed. I also need to get online. There are only two computers in the hostel, so I pick up my laptop and head to a nearby Starbucks. Guangzhou is a big metropolis of 10 million people, so as well as the main built-up city centre on the north bank of one fork of the Pearl River, there are numerous other suburbs spreading out in all directions across the islands of delta. The original article I read mentions Hongqiao and Baiyun Districts, villages around the airport apparently. I know already that the airport’s name is Baiyun, so that sounds about right, but I really need to get a detailed map.

I walk into the city’s main shopping district to get a map and also flip-flops, and in great late afternoon light, fire off a couple of street photos. I take another 250 in the next five hour stroll around the centre. Got some good ones, one or two portfolio-standard ones even ? Maybe ? Maybe not…Anyway, the rush of being in a big 24 hour city is exciting after slow sleepy North China and I want to feel it while it lasts. I find my map, but no flip-flops.

28th Sept

I take a flight from a 13 degrees and rainy afternoon in Xi’an into a 30 degrees and balmy evening in Guangzhou. Summer is back again. But does that also mean lethargy and laziness ? Better not be, because in 5-6 weeks from now, I want to be heading back North with a project about an apparently 80,000 strong African trading community based in Guangzhou, the largest and most distinct such community in China. If I was a black-skinned Cantonese speaker, it would surely be so much easier.

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Term 2 Journal - Beware…8000 words ! Written on September 8, 2008, by .

Graeme Nicol

Photo MA Term 2 Journal,

combined projects, using different fonts for each as below.

“pre-Olympic post-Rock”: Wangwen Summer ‘08 Tour (Multimedia)

“Boutique” Issue-based (8-page print spread)

4th July

Today I flew down to meet Wangwen in Chengdu, before their show that night. I’ve planned this project for so long, I’m literally bursting with enthusiasm to get started. After stumbling into their hotel room, shaking hands and being handed a bottle of beer, I get straight to work, setting up the tripod and DV camera for an interview. I possibly should have been less keen, but it actually went well, partly I think because the band were still unfamiliar with me. Apart from Xie, we had hardly even been introduced to each other, and there was a businesslike efficiency to the proceedings. I’m not even sure if Xie had really told them beforehand that I would be coming.

I went to the show with them, started photographing the activity outside, looked round and the band were gone, I had pretty much been abandoned, or maybe I had abandoned them. It wasn’t so much that they were rude, more just that they were normal, without the usual display of over the top hospitality I’ve come to expect from Chinese. Of course I wondered if perhaps they found it a little unusual for me to be suddenly part of their lives. It wasn’t a problem though, I got to work again, interviewing and photographing the music fans who were beginning to congregate outside. Then Xie suddenly appeared from nowhere, noticed the red stamp on my hand to indicate I had already paid, and said “No, no, no, you’re with us, no need to pay money” and went to the door to get me my 30 Yuan refunded. So I hadn’t overstepped into their privacy after all, they were just focused on sorting things out prior to going on stage.

I recorded some video and took some photos during the show, and thought I had audio as well, but realised towards the end that I had forgotten to press record. Shit. I had the feeling it wouldn’t be the first time I would do that – the Zoom H4 recorder interface is OK but could be improved. After the show the band had disappeared again, and I did more photographing, more audio interviewing. About half an hour later all the band was outside, gathering their equipment before heading back to the hotel. They were going out for something to eat, and more to drink, and I was of course invited too.

We also discussed some rules about my role there as a photographer. Being left to my own devices was fine by me, possibly better even, but I was worried that by not living in the same hotel room as them, and also going away to mingle and shoot the audience, I would be left out of the loop regarding information, information that could help me plan when to film and shoot. I told them it was important that they let me know their schedule a little in advance, because I didn’t want to always be hanging around them waiting for something to happen. I needed to know when they would need time to themselves, so I could leave them alone, and when I should come back to hang out and start photographing at a time when it better suited them.

I was off duty from then on, just eating and drinking with new friends rather than documentary subjects. There were lots of things said that I would have loved to have captured on camera, but I could sense that there would be plenty more times in the future. I had to think for the long term, so no more DV tonight. So I got to know the others a little better that evening, but could still sense some distance between us, understandable considering that not only was I a foreigner, but the band had been travelling together for almost a month by now. I did a little more filming, and let people play around with my camera and DV player.

5th July

No early start. Up at midday, mad dash trying to get everything ready to go to Chongqing. I hardly spoke to the band. They hadn’t been able to get me a train ticket so I’d have to go there myself. No problem. So I said goodbye to them, jumped in a taxi to the bus station, and got a bus. I actually arrived in Chongqing an hour before the band, and had enough time to explore the city centre a little, grab a beer & noodles on the street, and then head to the show to meet them. Same deal as the previous night. I did my own thing, came and went, gathered material among the crowd, lost the band several times, always knowing they were somewhere in the area. I decided not to photograph this evening and concentrate on video and audio. The venue was more intimate and I was among the crowd rather than in VIP area above the stage. The speakers weren’t that good in Chongqing, but ironically I got a better recording. I found out my recorder isn’t great at recording a big grungy wall of sound.

The band found me after the show and informed me they were going for Chongqing hotpot. Only three of the band were there, plus others from the support band. I found it easier talking to the band when they weren’t all together. While we were there, one of the other band members came in with bad news; the keyboardist’s mum had just died. He was going to have to fly back to Dalian next day. They had been told when they got back to Beijing that she was seriously ill, which perhaps explains some of their apparent anxiety and tenseness. The keyboardist wanted the band to go and get blind drunk and sing his favourite songs at KTV. I sensed that given I had hardly ever spoken to him, it was best to give him and the band space, and I went back to my hotel.

6th July

Up again later than hoped, feeling tired, travelled with band back to Chengdu. It had been an unplanned backtrack due to lack of onward sleeper tickets from Chongqing, but there were also no seat tickets to Chongqing, so we stood for four hours. Apart from Xie, it was a during this journey that I really properly had time to speak to the other band members on their own, and that night, in Chengdu, with no show to film, and with tired legs and a hangover, my own motivation for filming lacking, I felt I was now beginning to feel what the band felt. I was starting to adapt to their pace, their routine, feeling the same need to catch a nap, or relax with a beer and do nothing. My arrival two nights ago now seemed a long long time ago indeed.

7th July

I was now on the overnight train with them to Changsha for 20 hours. It was too noisy to do interviews, and there’s a limit to how many variations on train shots you can do, so we talked a lot, and ate noodles, and drunks some beer, and chilled out. The guys in the band were now quite at ease with me, and even more so after I showed them a slideshow of the photos I’d taken so far. I’m less of a fly on the wall now, more like the family dog. They now seem totally used to my camera being among them, The change in mood, or pace, had been as much a change in myself as a change in them, and it lead me to question my approach of trying to shoot right from the beginning. I’d say I was justified by the fact I was still there on the tour with them, and was seemingly accepted, I clearly hadn’t pissed them off that much, if I had at all. There were certain photos and interviews that I could only have got during that initial stage, just as there will be those that I will only be able to get now I am acclimatised. My life before the tour is starting to fade into distant memory.

8th July

We arrive in Changsha. I’m exhausted, I didn’t sleep well. We go for food at around 11am. The whole day to explore Changsha, except no-one can be bothered, and neither can I. My tiredness turns out to be more than just lack of sleep, and I retreat to my bed for the afternoon with mild food poisoning. I’m now much more aware of their routine, when the band are most responsive to being probed for interviews, when I’m likely to get good visual material, and when I’m just wasting valuable storage space. The Changsha show is much like the others, I get much the same photos. I had initially planned to travel with them for the whole tour, and had been worried that cutting it down to these four shows wouldn’t give myself enough time, but now I realise four is enough. I’m repeating myself, and the band are kinda withdrawn, gone into autopilot. I record the show anyway, and get enough good photos to justify bringing my camera. My stomach seems to be well enough to handle beer. I go out with them after wards like previous nights.

9th July

Wuhan tonight. Up early for real this time, four hours on the train. The band make up for their late night but I find it difficult to sleep on trains. I’m exhausted. I really can’t be bothered photographing again tonight. I ask the band how they keep themselves motivated. They shrug. That’s about as exciting an answer as I’m getting from them. Right now I don’t really care. I realise that the band are no different to how they were in Chengdu, if anything their jet lag induced indifference was even stronger back then. The reason I got better material from them then is because I pushed for it more. I think I was right to go in strong at the start I think, because by now I could hardly care f I get material or not. Food, hotel, beer, show, train, food, hotel, beer, show etc…. I need space from the band too, I’ve done the equivalent now of a 40 hour week with them. I need my own space for a bit, a change of scene. The band are in their hotel room, no doubt saying lots of profoud things that won’t be on my multimedia piece. Too bad, huh. I sleep for a bit, then explore Wuhan a little on my own, to keep myself awake as much as anything. The venue and hotel is way out in the suburbs though, and there’s little to see of any particular interest. Xie calls me to tell me they’re soundchecking. I’m curious to see the venue. It’s a good one, the best yet. The band tell me they’re looking forward to it, and sure enough its a special atmosphere. They rise to the event, playing a great set, and I too snap out of my malaise, kick into professional mode and take some of the best photos of the tour so far. Afterwards we go for food again, but I really begin to come down with a fever and headcold and back to my wonderful windowless hotel room early.

10th July

Sleep until noon in the pitch dark, dozed up on cold relief tablets. Wangwen have already checked out and according to the several text messages on my cellphone are 15 km across the city buying clothes. This is the first time in a week that anyone in the band has had the time or energy to really have a look around any of the cities we have visited, but I need to head back. I quickly book a flight back to Dalian for later that day. Even if I didn’t have to go back anyway for other reasons I’d probably be heading back anyway, I feel like shit, need some personal space away from the band, and am running out of motivation to collect basically the same material every night. I take a taxi into the city centre to meet Xie, who is getting his guitar fixed, and I wander around the old colonial part of Wuchang with him and two people from last night’s support band, even taking a few photos, before saying goodbye and heading off to the airport. It feels in some ways like the end of an era, but also feels good. I’m free again. Nothing to document. Serfdom over. For now…

13th July

My Visa was sent off today for processing. Another weight off my shoulders to have all that sorted out, but it does mean I now can’t leave Dalian until I get my passport back.

14th July

After some well earned rest after that frantic week of travel and shutter-clicking, I really now need to be back out trying my Seagull medium format, which was brought back from Beijing at the end of June and which I haven’t had time to try out yet. But so much has happened in the Chinese media in the last month during the busy intensives and then my trip away, there’s the Weng’an riots down in Guizhou, and more affairs related to the Olympic build-up. I need to catch up. I really feel I’m getting a much deeper understanding of China by observing closely the rollercoaster events of this bizarre year. Which is great in the long term, but not helping me with my project in the short term.

If I’m honest, I’m having doubts about this Beauty project, not the subject itself, but my approach. It seemed like a good concept a month ago when I was presenting it, but now having done much of my other documentary, one that I’ve been absolutely immersed in and focused on, this one seems lightweight in comparison. But I have no other option but to plough ahead. Perhaps a better idea will come to me as I go…

15th July

I took my Seagull TLR to Zhan Ping for a quick once-over check. He seems to think its fine, shutter a bit sticky at slower speeds, but on the whole, looks ok. Now I just have to find a decent tripod. I had been planning to use the cheaper one I had but I left it in the bar in Wuhan after the Wangwen show, probably for the best, as it really wasn’t great quality. I buy a new one by a Japanese company called Slik for 480 Yuan, and slick it is too, both rigid enough for stabilising a TLR and smooth enough in terms of movement for sticking the DV camera on. I also buy a reflector.

16th July

I go down to Echo Coffee shop with the Seagull and a roll of expired PPN portrait film to test what sort of results it gives. I need to sort this out before I start shooting anything.

I have the idea that perhaps I can concentrate my documentary only on Peace Plaza, a new retail development in Dalian next to where I live, look at all the ways that people can spend money there in order to improve their image and status, so there’s mens & women’s clothes shops, manicure stalls, massage places, hairdressers, beauty parlours, yoga centres, weights gyms,

17th July

The results of the first Seagull portraits are a success. The exposure doesn’t exactly match my DSLR, but it’s close enough to still allow me to meter off it. I’ll probably have to darken the scans, but that’ll also create some quite vignetting, which might look nice.

18th July

I get prints made and take them back down to Echo to give back to people, and notice that they’ve now got a display of vintage cameras for sale. They even have one or two vintage Polaroid cameras, plus a book called “The Polaroid Book”. I’m engrossed in it. Of course I’ve seen Polaroids before, but never looking like this. The soft vintage tones and faded charm aesthetic of Polaroids would be perfect for my documentary portraits. But how much Polaroid film is there left ? And can I afford to shoot a whole project on it ? I spend the evening on-line researching everything to do with Polaroids and trawling through Flickr’s archive to get a feel for the Polaroid tones.

I’ll judge the situation based on how many Polaroid cameras I can find next week when I visit Beijing’s Wukesong camera market and how much film there seems to be available. Perhaps there is even a film I can use with the Seagull that would give me a similar look ? Fuji Velvia perhaps ? Its high saturation will be balanced by the Seagull’s tendency to overexpose the centre and make it milky, and there’s a definite colour tint to it, which I can tweak in processing to give Polaroid-ish tones. I’m really still learning how film works, but I reckon the overall tone will be harder to tweak on a film which gives faithful colour representation.

20th July

I start to properly sift through the first of the tour photos and see just what kind of stuff I’ve actually brought back. I spend a few hours putting moving photos back and forward between folders and post-processing. I also upload a few of the Wangwen photos to Flickr to gauge the level of interest among an international audience. It’s favourable. I also continue finding out what all the buttons on flash gun are for. The tour was the first time I’d really ever used such a proper flash before, and it was kinda trial and error.

21st July

My visa is processed, I have my passport back, and can now leave Dalian again. I get an overnight train to Beijing in the evening.

22nd July

In Wukesong I look through the whole place for Polaroid cameras and/or Polaroid film. There’s nothing, some Fuji Instax, but no Polaroid. I scrap the Polaroid idea and buy 12 rolls of Fuji Velvia slide film instead for using with my Seagull. I costs me less than half of the price of the same film in Dalian. I also stock up on other kinds of film, for no particular purpose. I spend almost 500 Yuan on film. It somehow feels good to now be the owner of all this hard to obtain film, but will I ever use it ? I also buy a cable release wire. I’m kinda relieved in a way, and realise that I had been getting distracted somewhat by the idea of Polaroids. I could research the methodology to death. What I need to do is get out and shoot.

Also in Wukesong I buy a wireless adaptor for my flash. Hopefully I’ll try it out at the show in two days time.

24th July

Meet Wangwen at their Beijing show. They seem glad to see me again. It feels strange rejoining them, but I’m much more aware now about how to readjust to their tour pace. Once we get inside the venue it’s business as usual, they soundcheck, I shoot the crowd, we’re both back in the routine, a routine which involves beer and food afterwards. I don’t use wireless flash, but experiment with synch flash. Again I got enough good photos to justify coming to Beijing, and lots more usable interviews in English with the crowd, who are on the whole more clued-up about music in general.

25th July

Travel back to Dalian with Wangwen. They’re now asking me to take photos of them when they want a shot taken, and I can have them all posed within seconds if I want to catch a quick album-cover style shot. I’m now pretty relaxed towards my project. I know I’ve got enough good stuff. I can take my foot off the pedal. The band too are almost home, tour over for another year.

26th July

Last show of the tour, I don’t bother recording it, just turn up a the end for some photos. We go out for beers and kebabs afterwards, a huge group of thirty of us, me the only foreigner, all sitting in an L-shaped kinda row. Once drunk, I have the idea of handing my equipment over to the group, giving them the DV and sound recorder, and DSLR with flash, and letting them just shoot and record as they please. It works really well. I get over two hours of audio and video. The younger people are especially at ease with a DV camera and voice recorder. They really get into the roles. Some of the footage is hilarious, proper Dongbei humour. It will take a lot of time to translate into English though. We all get blind drunk. I barely remember getting home, but somehow all my equipment is still in one piece.

28th July

More editing and processing of photos. I’ve almost got my first edit from the first trip away finished. No doubt I will add to this as I look through it all again and find more shots that have a place.

29th July

My project grows an arm when I am phoned up by one of the younger guys who was drinking with us the other night. His band “Which Park” are practicing that evening and want me to go and film them. Sure, why not…turns out they will be spending the next week in the studio recording their debut album. I go out for a meal with them after, and who turns up as well, but Xie and Gengxin from Wangwen. We all get drunk.

30st July - 3rd August

I spend a lot of time in the studio with Which Park. Xie and Gengxin from Wangwen drop in and out too. This is great for Wangwen project. The band adjusting back to ordinary life back in Dalian, and mixing with friends, and passing their experience on is something I want to capture as part of the documentary. The contrast between Wangwen, slightly older, around 30, 31, and Which Park, who are all between 20 and 25, is good too, different sides of the One Child policy cut-off, plus 5 – 10 more years of exposure to globalisation. Overall I record another 2 hours of DV footage plus another couple of hours of audio, and many more photos, on top of what I already have of Wangwen.

4th August

I must admit I’m finding it hard to motivate myself to go out an shoot the beauty-based documentary portraits. I really need to get it started before the Olympics start, because I know I’ll end up getting distracted by the media coverage surrounding that. Part of the problem is that I still don’t have the project sufficiently resolved in my head to be suitably enthusiastic about going to shoot it. I thought it would come to me during the previous three weeks, but it hasn’t. I’m the sort of person that invests so much of their time and energy in something, to the detriment of all else around. I’m the same with conversations, and with relationships. I’ve been totally focused on the Wangwen project, and now I’m trying to switch track to these portraits, but still with one eye on Wangwen, and in trying to juggle two things at once, to multitask my energy, I end up doing neither.

I’ve also brought back over 1000 photos on my hard drive, many of which are still unprocessed. All my momentum is pushing me towards resolving those, seeing that work come to some kind of fruition. By now I’m fairly well in control of my DSLR habits. I rarely go on an all out trigger-fest, snappping away in hope. I’m almost as disciplined about shooting digital as I am with film, perhaps because I also shoot film. I tend to delete lots of shots in camera, edit as I go, and by the time I reach a computer I pretty much know which shots I’ll want to use. Some people say I should retain all these shots, but I don’t agree. I’m not taking these photos for posterity, for the benefit of someone looking through my contact sheets. If the occasional great image is deleted, then so be it. The bottom line is that overall, my approach to the Wangwen project has delivered the material I wanted it to. Thus my creative fire has been quenched for now, my obsessive need to press the shutter has been satisfied for another month. Before I can go back out and shoot more, I need to feel that hunger again, that spark, and I probably won’t feel it as long as I don’t quite have the portrait project suitably resolved in my head.

It also suddenly strikes me that much of Wangwen’s adjustment back to reality seems to involve beer. It almost seems they are delaying a return to real life. I wonder if I too am guilty of this. How important really has recording this Which Park offshoot been ? I think I can link it in with the longer version of the Wangwen documentary, but can I really ?

The guys in Which Park give me a call. Not only have they finally finished recording the album, but it’s also someone’s birthday, they’re all going out for barbecue down by the beach. Xie and Gengxin arrive too. I say I’ll go down for one or two, but end up having several. Hey that’s what summer is all about after all. I deliberately don’t take my camera, but after a couple of beers I end up hijacking someone else’s DSLR and shooting away like an idiot anyway. Most of it is probably crap.

5th August

I wake up with more than a hangover, it’s food poisoning again… oh bollocks…

I don’t even have the energy or drive to upload to Flickr…that’s when you know I’m really ill…

6th August

Get a call from guys in Wangwen. They’re going out for beers in the middle of Dalian. I meet them, without even taking my camera. It seems they are already quite drunk. My stomach is still a little dodgy from two nights ago, but I drink a little. In their drunken wisdom, that ask me to become their official full-time videographer, a proper member of the band. They now seem to trust me though to the point that when I am speaking to them on my own, they are telling me things that they don’t want each other to know. I’ve changed from the fly on the wall, to the family dog, into something akin to a Catholic priest. What implication does this have on my ability to tell a story. In contrast to the beginning where I was given an official story by Wangwen that fitted the group consensus and had to dig for additional info, I’m now being given all these nuggets from the band about each other, off the record, that would make great twists to the story and inject some juicy gossip, but I know I can’t use them. There are some things that stay between people and shouldn’t become public. I don’t want to stir up trouble. Now I see that it is me that must impose constraints on the real story for the benefit of the group and present an officially approved story. I must be dishonest with myself. I must water down and filter the truth. This of course means that I lose respect somewhat for my own project and question what purpose I am really trying to fulfill.

Gengxin is also talking about opening up a live music venue in Dalian. He says he’s doing it because he never wants to go back to the day-job. I could document him as he looks for potential places, but really, how interesting will that be ? Would I be in danger of just gathering more material that I will never have the time to sift through ? Multimedia is so easy to accumulate, and it’s not like photography, when you can count your success immediately in terms of successful shots. With multimedia though it’s far easier just to shoot one more cassette, do one more interview, just in case it turns out to be useful. Everything is “just in case”. You need to be so much more disciplined, you have to know when to stop, and to do that you need to know your story. But how can you know that until you really know your topic, and your subjects ? Won’t the story change ? So much of what is pissing me off right now about the Western media’s coverage of the Olympic build-up is that it seems so many have come here with their headlines pre-written, all they need is to flesh it out with details, fitting the evidence to the crime instead of listening and observing what they see on the ground. This isn’t the sort of journalism or documentary work I want to do. How much do I work into my plans the potential that all plans cease to exist, and how much do I need a certain amount of structure to see the project through in a way I am happy with ? I guess it will come with experience.

I’m also concerned about the amount the band (and myself) are drinking. It’s true it’s the height of the hot lazy humid summer, and they haven’t gone back to work yet, and there was the Dalian beer festival last week, and their friends were in the studio, and now this week there is a certain pre-Olympic carnival atmosphere in China, but I want to document their return to daily life to contrast with the tour. It doesn’t seem like they are in any way trying to return to that normality yet, I’m convinced of that now, they’re still “on the road” in their heads, and as long as I’m there with a camera, I probably am too. I’m driven by a need to finish off the project and get some “closure”, but I wonder if even by being there, I am in fact actually delaying that process. I can surely be as much of a bad influence on them as they are on me. It’s probably best if I take some time out away from the band. I’ll wait until the Olympics are coming to a close and then re-visit the project.

7th August

Ok, new regime, more exercise, no beer, for a bit anyway. I need to sort out my computer as well, it’s so blooming slow and buggy. I reinstall everything, takes me a whole day to copy stuff off onto hard drives and almost the same time to re-install it, but it seems better, and I really need something reliable to be going on with for editing the remaining photos. I hate computers.

8th August

The mother of all distractions has just kicked off in the Caucausus, dwarfing the Olympics and any photographic projects I might be trying to concentrate on. It’s unfolding before me, and I have a real motivation to find out about why it’s unfolding the way it is. I can go back and review the events later, but it won’t be the same, and once the event has died down, it’s not guaranteed that I will even have the motivation to do so. Right now, the world’s media has gone into top gear, and as a consumer of that media am I in top gear too. I’m hyper-motivated to learn, to absorb, and to think, and I know myself well enough to know that I have to follow the motivation. I’m in the zone, digesting almost the entire history of the Cold War and US-Soviet relations in one sleepless night of internet research.

Of course it may not be purely external motivation, as seperatist movements have particular interest for me right now, being a Scot. We have a seperatist government in power, and a possible independence referendum within two or three years. The reality is that most Scots are ambivalent, there are a few diehard unionists (or if you like British nationalists/European seperatists) and a few diehard Scottish nationalists, but the majority, myself included, might feel Scottish but also part-British. But what is Britain these days ?Is it an idea worth believing in, worth me giving up part of my Scottish identity for ? I’m not convinced. Apart from the odd article in the Guardian, the mainstream media have just parroted the government line in this Russia-Georgia conflict, and the government have, just as they did in the build up to Iraq, parroted the US neo-con line. Britain is as much of a proxy of the US empire as the likes of Georgia. More worrying is the endless excuses and climate of appeasement being produced to justify it all. Does nobody think critically any more or are they worried it might be picked up on CCTV camera ? Of course there’s oil involved on both “sides”, but I think it’s about more than that. The French, Italians and Germans still seem to have some sense of diplomacy, of dignity, of mutual respect, even if it’s a veneer, it’s a good veneer to have. The idea of a multi-polar Europe seems to hold more future right now than a USA seemimngly intent on cannibalising itself, or the idea of a London-driven puppet Britain whose body is kept on life-support by virtue of some lingering nostalgia for days when it was more than just a glorified stock exchange. I’m gripped by existential angst, world politics, media, and needing to vent. I’m suddenly aware that my concerns still lie very much events around the North Sea as well as the Yellow Sea, I feel at odds with the Chinese society around me, as if I am a first time foreigner, just arrived in the country. I’m in no fit state to be going out taking photos.

9th August

Back to the beauty portraits. I stick a roll of Velvia slide film through my Seagull. It gets chewed up. Bugger…it worked fine before, what could be wrong now ? What do I do if this can’t be resolved ? Polaroid after all ? Holga ? Use my DSLR even ?

I’m sure I could churn something out quickly using Digital, but its a compromise I’m not willing to make. I know I only have finite energy for going out and making these portraits. I’m not going to waste it all on shots that I know from the start are a second-best option. I may become a professional photographer, but I will always be a photographer first and a professional second. Digital is not an option for this. It has to be with the Seagull. Perhaps only Polaroid would be a suitable Plan B

10th August

Research colour profiles. I become the all-time grandmaster of all things coloured and prolific, for about an hour, and then forget most of it. I do know though that I generally shoot in Adobe RGB as a matter of course, but I guess sRGB will be ok for the multimedia if it’s going on the web. I can convert. I also decide not to rock the boat by trying to edit in Lightroom or Photoshop, and I will just continue with no-frills package Irfanview, which I know so well, I can virtually edit with my eyes closed.

11th - 22nd August

Edit photos for the multimedia bit by bit, five or six a day, slowly but surely, enough o keep it going without distracting me too much from the Beauty project. I upload them to Flickr and generates a fair bit of interest, receiving 100 or so hits a day from my own “fans” tuning in to see the latest installment. I might not be getting paid for it, but it’s satisfying to know that all that time and effort is finding some sort of audience, even if it isn’t in its final form.

During this time I also make my first attempt to categorise all the audio recordings I brought back. I begin to listen to them all, to see what I can use. There’s so much to translate, too much for now. I’m going to have to just do a short version for now and leave the final full version for later.

I’m also not so sure about the Peace Plaza idea any more. I want to scrap the idea of holding up signs that reveal more about the people, scrap the idea of Peace Plaza, and all different manifestations of beauty and image and status. Abandon any idea of making slightly contrived comments on consumerism. Documenting alone will be enough, but to make it a worthwhile document I need to tighten it up somewhat.

I still like the idea of finding shops in Dalian, but getting access will be a real problem. Knowing Chinese culture, connections are everything, and if I walk in off the street I’m unlikely to have success. If I find places to shoot through a friend of a friend I will have much more success. Having someone who knows me well to vouch for me is important in making people at ease. Echo Coffee is my best bet. Although its only a few months old, I’ve known both the owners for two or three years, and I know a few people in their extended social circle, which overlaps a little with the social circle I know Xie from Wangwen through.

12th August

Yesterday’s idea for the beauty portraits has evolved into something that seems to have reinvigorated my desire to go out and shoot. It’s ridiculously simple, in theory. Portraits of shoppers, trying on new clothes, and in the caption, what it is about the clothes that leads them to they buy them or not. That’s all, I think that’s enough. It’s much narrower and specific than my previously vague and over-ambitious project, and correspondingly I’m much more driven to shoot it. Unfortunately my Seagull is still chewing up the film I put through it.

The key is also finding a suitable shop, both one that can allow me to bring in a larger narrative context to frame it, and one whose clothes fit the aesthetic of the Seagull plus the Velvia. I need to find the right one. I write out a note in English and translate it into Chinese which I will take along to Echo Coffee. Writing it in Chinese myself is really important. The Chinese love it when a foreigner can speak Chinese writing it is even better. It opens doors on so many more levels than just having better communication. It shows them that I’m not the typical aloof English speaker stuck in a neo-colonial rut, relying on a linguistic balance of power being tipped globally in my favour to provide me with a willing army of helpers. People may think these symbolic gestures aren’t noticed, but I’m pretty sure they are, symbolism and “the gesture” means a lot more in Chinese culture. It’s also partly why I’m set on using the Chinese-made Seagull camera.

I put my note up at Echo. The owner actually puts it up on their on-line message board as well. They seem hopeful that I will get access through it. The only problem is that I’m still when I’m going to go, how long to wait until I fix my camera. If I begin to waste people’s time then they will not be so willing to help me.

13th August

I find out the problem with the Seagull. The shot counter is broken, and there’s something loose in the winding mechanism. It’s not stopping after each shot, there’s no resistance, just keeps winding. If I’m very gentle with it I can put a whole roll of film through without it chewing it up, but in order to avoid shots overlapping, I need to calculate how far to turn the handle each time to advance it. After a lot of measuring I think I’ve got a system that I can attempt to use without just wasting film. Of course I need to test another film first, but not with Velvia bought in Beijing this time.

14th August

My judgement of how many shots to take on a roll seems ok, and the film doesn’t get chewed up if I’m very careful. I wasted quite a lot of the film I shot, but I should still be able to get 7 or 8 shots per roll without too much risk of overlapping or going off the end of the roll. Just need to find a shop now.

18th August

I hear that someone at Echo has news of someone who knows someone who has a shop that might be suitable. I ask them to make inquiries, and arrange for us to meet. I don’t expect it to happen tomorrow, it might take a week. I wrote out more sheets in Chinese and photocopy them to give to shoppers.

22nd August

I get a definite thumbs up from a shop, down near Renmin Road. An interesting area, but I have no idea what kind of shop it will be. I have to go and meet them in two days time.

I’d better do it quick. For some reason I thought I had planned to have this done for the end of the month, but it seems I’ve made a mistake, it’s the 25th we need to have something ready by. I did write it down in a diary, but I never thought to check until now.

23rd August

I decide that for the short version of the Wangwen documentary, I’ll ask Xie to write something, and then we can record that, I’ll mix in their music and sequence the photos accordingly.

24rd August

I go down to the shop. It’s a small women’s boutique, quite classical yet modern clothing, elegant, stylish and the walls are painted pink and purple. This is absolutely ideal for using Velvia with. It’s also run by a feisty retired woman with a real story to tell, and got a very set demographic context, of shoppers with money from the offices of the nearby business district, wanting something a little out of the ordinary. I set up my camera and tripod, and wait, and wait…only one shopper that afternoon, and she doesn’t want to participate. Apart from the lack of customers, it’s absolutely ideal for what I want. The lack of customers is a problem though…hmm. Apparently midday to early afternoon is the best time. The woman who owns it isn’t convinced I will have any more luck finding people to participate though, but is welcome to me trying again nonetheless.

25th August

I also find out that there is another boutique next door to the one I was at yesterday. Its owner is happy to let me shoot there as well. I get three decent portraits between the two shops. Not only that but I get a phone call from someone else about a “streetwear” store elsewhere in the city that will let me shoot there. I thank the woman at the clothes shop and head to the other shop. The owner is cool, into photography too, and even gives me a free t-shirt, but no customers arrive. It’s quiet, he says, because the students aren’t back at university yet. Next week it will be busier. Eventually a customer arrives, and I shoot a portrait, but he tells me afterwards that the customer was a friend who lived locally. He had made a phonecall to him telling them I was there. Although I think the customer bought the t-shirt for real anyway, can I still use this shot ? First things first though, I need to see the results of today’s work, and stick the film in for developing.

26th August

I meet Xie in the evening and see what he has written. It’s good, more personal than I could come up with, and less complex, due to it not being written in his native language. I tidy it up a little, with a view to recording it that night, but by the time I’m finished, Xie is too drunk to talk.

27th August

I get the results back next day. The best portrait has a huge light leak across it. This is the first time I’d seen this. Knowing the Flickr crowd, this sort of stuff goes down well, but would magazines take it ? Apparently yes, Both DJ and Robert Pledge also seem to think it adds something. I just need another few portraits of the same quality as the best one I have so far.

Xie is unavailable this evening for recording. Tomorrow apparently is ok.

28th August

I get a taxi across the city at 10pm to meet Xie, to record what he has written. We meet at his flat, and of course I brought my camera too, for a portrait by his front door that will be useful in the final edit.

29th August

The weather is stormy today. Even in the unlikely event of there actually being any shoppers, I’m not standing out in the torrential rain with a camera that no doubt leaks more than just light…it dries up a little later on though later on though and I go down to get a portrait of the owner before she closes up shop. I interview her as well, to get the information I need to go with the story. She writes it in Chinese, and the people at Echo Coffee later help me decipher her handwriting. I also take my camera in past the photo lab, where they said they might be able to fix the winding mechanism and counter. It seems they could. For now at least the Seagull works again.

I also start working on editing the audio. It probably shouldn’t take me that long, but I’m a perfectionist. I write songs in my spare time, for fun, sitting for a whole afternoon with a guitar, crafting, honing, tweaking, getting that sense of continuity, or else change. Being a musician as well as a photographer is surely a bonus in terms of audio quality, but not in terms of time. The process must be painstakingly frustrating for anyone to watch. I actually quite enjoy editing audio though, as much as I enjoy editing photos. I have the idea of making the audio so it works as a standalone mp3, as well as together with the photos. Done in this way, considering it to be its own project, audio isn’t really a chore at all.

30th August

Back down at the shop again. I get the shots I need, I think. Unfortunately the only person in Dalian who goes anywhere near E6 chemicals, a guy called Huang Laoshi, is away for the weekend. I won’t get my film back for two days then instead of one, which means I’ll miss the deadline and get bad marks for Term 2. Yeah, it’ll all be because of Huang. Blame Huang…

1st September

After a last minute blitz on getting my long overdue Term 1 essay polished up (much of it was already written), I get down to the photolab for my prints. A couple are slightly out of focus because of the viewfinder not being the brightest, but I can still use them. I also grab a couple of contextual shots in nice evening light with my DSLR and wide angle.

2nd September-8th September

I’ve missed the deadline for handing both of my projects in. I didn’t have anywhere online to put them in any case. Now I do though, my new Hostgator account is running again, it’s just a case of building a new Wordpress blog and seeing if I can remember how I embedded my stuff before. The whole of the rest of the week is spent trying to fix my computer which appears to have taken a turn for the worse, after seeming fine for a while after I re-installed everything. And of course I spend a lot of time editing, the multimedia mainly. I have a week apparently, and I use every last bit of it. It’s a real marathon, I’m surviving on five hours of sleep, simply because I’m so in the zone. I’m getting to bed at 5am most mornings, having dreams that involve conversations I had when I was away “on tour”, and then spending around 16 hours a day hunched over on my couch, and combating this ridiculously unhealthy lifestyle with occasional bursts of weights at the gym and two fruit-smoothies a day. There’s much more to do than I had previously thought, mostly as I said, because I’m a perfectionist, and have boundless reserves of patience for fiddling and tweaking all things audio-visual. I have to go back through all my photos again looking for photos that fit. Final version is five minutes long. In contrast, the print project took only about three hours to put together with InDesign, although I had previously done the post-production and done the writing to go with it.

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