Ryan Pyle Blog: My New Canon EOS 1V's

Hello.

Yes. It appears I've done the impossible. The ridiculous. The un-imaginable. I've purchased two more film cameras. Insane? Perhaps, but much needed. Let me try to explain.

When I was a budding photographer I was a bit clueless and in serious need of guidance. That guidance was provided by TIME magazine regular, and Fifty Crows Award winner, Andrew Moore. To see some of Andrew's work visit the Fifty Crows and search under the winners for the year of 2000. You'll see his photographic coverage of Northern Ireland.

I met Andrew while I was learning how to be a photographer. Well, in fact I am still learning how to be a photographer but I met Andrew at an earlier stage. We were side by side shooting together during the massive protests in Hong Kong on July 1st 2003, they say about a million people took to the streets that day. Andrew's work was lovely.

Andrew had relocated from the UK to Hong Kong and had begun work in Asia. At that time I had only one camera and 1 lens, a Canon EOS 1 with a 50mm f/1.4 lense. Life was bliss. But as I continued working on personal projects and trying to put together a strong portfolio to show clients Andrew actually provided a lot of guidance and assistance. He showed me a lot of his personal work and offered me a lot of tips. It might not have taken too much of his time or effort, but our relationship was very influential and inspiring for me.

When I was about to leave Hong Kong Andrew mentioned that he was selling is Canon EOS 1n's, and asked me if I would like to purchase them. I said absolutely. They were the camera's that he used for much of his long and storied, and award winning, Northern Ireland work. I paid a well below market price and packed my bags and returned to Shanghai. Since that moment those Canon EOS 1n's have been the backbone of my career to date. I've used them thousands of times and put every kind of film imaginable through them. The whole time remembering the history of the cameras. It's been an emotional experience to say the least.

Well I'm sad to say, sorry Andrew, that I've just upgraded to the Canon EOS 1v. It is perhaps the last Canon film camera ever to be developed; and while the design and functions haven't changed since it was introduced almost a decade ago; it was a welcome upgrade for me. As I've mentioned several times on this blog I push through a lot of film and the EOS system has been my workhorse. Andrew's 1n's operated flawlessly for over five years and only just a few weeks ago did I order up the new 1v's from B&H. Why did I order them from B&H in the US? Simple really. When I went to the camera market in Shanghai people laughed at me when I told them I was looking for the EOS 1v. And when I called my favorite photography supplier in Hong Kong he told me it would take three weeks to order. B&H had it at my doorstep within five working days. Awesome!

I've put the camera through its paces over the last few weeks and it has performed wonderfully. Once again Canon comes through in the clutch. A few people have written in and asked what kind of gear I shoot with, so here is a brief run down of the gear I've got at home:

2x Leica M6
2x Canon EOS 1n (Andrew, I couldn't bring myself to sell them)
2x Canon EOS 1v
2x Canon EOS 5D MII (digital)
1x Fuji 6x9 (which you'll see in a new project coming soon)

So yes, I've had to re-mortgage my house to buy photography equipment over the last few years; but I feel I've invested well. My equipment is durable, takes a beating and holds up well in the re-sale market. We'll get in to lenses another day; I'm a bit busy with a project right now using my Canon EOS 1v's; I still love film.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Neo-Malthusian

Hello.

I would like to first off say that I'm a realist. I don't believe in Red or Blue, or Conservative or Democrat. I believe in what happens on the ground. Perhaps that would be obvious given that I try to document reality and real life on a daily basis. I take my political ideology from what I see in my daily life. I take my understanding of what state our society or planet is in by my work, my travel and my experiences. And after reading a special report by the Economist, a few weeks back, on population growth I have a few comments I'd like to share on this blog. I hope you'll find them thought provoking, and a strong base for debate.

I think it is important to start out by saying that I live in China, the world's most populous country. At the moment there are around 1.3 or 1.4 billion people that call China home; that means just about 1 in every 4 people in the world is Chinese.

Within China I travel almost weekly, visiting cities and rural communities alike, and often after my jobs are completed and I make my way back to my home in Shanghai (a city of 20 million) I can't help but often think to myself that there are just too many people in this country. It's impossible for them all to obtain a high standard of living and it's impossible for the government to reach each person with basic government services like education and healthcare. There is just too much to manage, democracy or no democracy; managing a country effectively with more than a billion people might just not be possible. One only has to look to democratic India to see how messy democratic development can be.

Sure that might sound like a good excuse, "oh, we have too many people to govern effectively"; but it could actually have a lot of truth to it. Too many people means competition is intense at every level of society which leaves the masses feeling often helpless, which often leads to people thinking that corruption is their only escape or way out. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but when I see ten year old kids coming out of school exams crying hysterically because they didn't do well and they won't get in to a good middle school, echoing words like: "my life is over", "I've failed my parents", and "I'll never get a good job"; I can't help but thinking that is a lot of pressure for a ten year old kid. When I was ten years old Canada had about 25 million people, a shade more than Shanghai, and I can't remember ever feeling like that - even right up until the end of my University career. So what is my point?

My point is that I'm starting to get a sick feeling in my stomach every time I visit a small village somewhere in rural China and see a husband and wife with 5 or 6 kids and not enough food or clothes to go around. I'm pained by reading about Philippine laborers losing their jobs in Taiwan and having to return to Manila with no money and no plan to feed their wife and five children. I'm exhausted by reading about how the world needs Chinese citizens to consume more, to what end? As our societies evolve and women have more educational and employment opportunities birth rates do fall, and they have started falling across much of the world; and that is a good thing. Very few of us, less than 1/4 of the global population, live in an environment where our only form of social security comes from the number of children we have. And hopefully that number will continue to decrease, in fact it must.

While the joys of having children and rising a family are obvious, so too are the successes of family planning and lighter forms of population control. Any country that promotes abstinence should be smacked for thinking the world lives in a sitcom from the 1950s. People have sex, and lots of it; often because it feels great and is a lot of fun if done so responsibly; so getting condoms and educating people how to use them is crucial. And there is a lot of evidence of that paying dividends in Africa and parts of Asia. The Economist even reported that women in Latin America and Asia used condoms 4x more often then women in Africa, so there is still much work to be done on the micro-planning level.

What about the macro-level? How does government family planning work? Well, like all macro planning; it is often very painful for some at the ground level but often better for the society as a whole. Much has been made of China's "One Child Policy" since it's inception in the late 1970s, but reports show that that policy alone has prevented about 400 million new births; meaning that the population of China is today only 1.3 billion instead of 1.7 billion and there are only 20 million new graduates entering the labor market each year instead of 40 million. Now it is true that such macro level planning restricts individual rights and freedoms, there have been horror stories of forced abortions, abandonment of baby girls, sterilization and all the rest of it; but can you imagine the energy demands of a China with 1.7 billion people? Already with 1.3 billion China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, one could make the argument that effective macro level population control in China is benefiting the global environment. Are individuals responsible enough to make the right choices on their own? Do they know what is best for them? Often yes, but perhaps sometimes no.

The Economist reports that the world population is likely to peak around 9.6 billion people in 2050, and then decline from there. China will actually start declining much sooner and be taken over by India as the most populous country in the world; which is a very scary prospect for both urban and rural Indians. Between now and 2050 our world needs to figure out a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions, find ways to generate renewable energy, waste less, consume less, produce more food, use water more efficiently, create better infrastructure, manage mega cities more effectively and above all else (as the Chinese government would say) keep political stability.

It's really an incredible task. I read the other day that a woman in the US had seven babies at one time, a result of fertility drugs; and that she is on welfare and hasn't held a steady job in years. I also read that in 1949 when the Communist government took control of China there were only 350 million people here. Can the world prosper with less people? Yes. Can individuals throughout the world become responsible and educated global citizens and manage issues like individual birth rates, waste and consumption on their own? I really hope so.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: The Economist

Hello.

Why does the Economist hate photographers so much?

I mean, they don't really hate photographers. The Economist is a big picture buyer and their magazine is getting thicker and thicker each year. My reason for my opening statement is that they don't credit any photography; and recently they used one of my images from a computer factory in Shenzhen, and there was no credit in the magazine and only a "Corbis" credit online. See below.

Now, I think I understand why they don't credit writers for their magazine; and it's because they are all staffers and they don't want to draw away from the brand of the Economist and let any individual writers become larger than the actual magazine. And that is fair enough assuming people are compensated enough for giving up that opportunity.

But freelance photographers, and writers as well, rely so much on proper captioning as a form of marketing or advertising. I've had a lot of re-sales over the years from people who viewed an image in a newspaper or magazine and picked out my name in the caption, then googled me and found my website or archive.

So why does the Economist do that? Anyone have any inside information? While it might get on my nerves personally, you can't really fault the Economist and their methods or business plan. Their magazine is booming, in both terms of subscriptions and advertising, while the rest of the industry is falling in to a dark hole. I've been a subscriber for five or six years and I couldn't image living without my weekly edition; if for nothing else it gives me a lot of blog about.

Economist Picture:
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Back to the circuit board
Oct 22nd 2009 | SAN FRANCISCO
From The Economist print edition



Tech firms are doing so well that boosters say they will spur a broader economic recovery. That is unlikely.

THIS year’s Web 2.0 Summit, an annual technology conference in San Francisco, featured a reception at a swanky hotel dubbed “Web After Dark”. The event was packed with euphoric entrepreneurs toasting their grand plans. Conference veterans noted the contrast with the previous year’s summit, which many attendees spent drowning their sorrows as the world economy sank into chaos.

There is plenty of other evidence that the darkness that has hung over the information-technology industry for many months is lifting. Three of the sector’s heavyweights—IBM, Intel and Google—recently reported surprisingly robust profits. Even Yahoo!, a struggling internet portal, did less badly than expected. On October 19th Apple stunned even the most bullish investors by posting its best quarterly results ever: revenues came in at $9.9 billion, 24% higher than the same period a year earlier. Venture-capital investments in America are growing again. And Windows 7, the new operating system Microsoft launched on October 22nd, is expected to pep up demand for personal computers and related gear. The OECD believes a recovery has been under way for some time, particularly in Asia.

All this is more than welcome. But the wave of good news has also helped to buoy the industry’s infamous self-regard. Some even predict that IT will pull the economy out of the mire, with investment in technology giving a swift boost to productivity and job creation. As Edward Yardeni, an economist known for his optimism, has put it: “This will be a technology-led recovery.”

Just how much of a boost IT can provide is a subject of some contention. Both Forrester and Gartner, the industry’s leading research firms, predict that the downturn will bottom out in the current quarter and that growth will resume next year. Yet the two firms differ on the severity of the recession in IT and, more importantly, the speed at which the industry will pull out of its slump. Forrester sees a V-shaped future, whereas Gartner envisages more of an L, with revenues remaining below last year’s level until 2012 at the earliest.

There are good reasons to be conservative. For a start, talk of rapid growth in percentage terms disguises low absolute numbers, thanks to the depth of the recent contraction. If venture-capital investments in America were up by an impressive 17% in the third quarter, according to the National Venture Capital Association, this was mainly because they had dropped to an historic low. The volatile dollar muddles the picture as well. For almost a year, the currency’s increasing strength weighed heavily on the results of American IT firms by devaluing foreign revenues. Now its increasing weakness makes their numbers look far healthier.

In addition, excellent results at Apple, Google and even Intel reflect increased demand from consumers. Apple has benefited from the boom in smart-phones, Google from users clicking on more advertisements and Intel from the popularity of “netbooks” (small laptops), many of which contain its chips. But companies still account for by far the biggest chunk of technology spending. IBM, which offers the entire range of corporate IT services, from powerful computers to consulting services, is therefore a much better proxy for the overall health of the IT industry. Although its profits were better than expected, its revenues fell by nearly 7% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year.



Moreover, it is likelier that the economy, supported by low interest rates and stimulus programmes, is reviving IT, rather than the other way around—a function of IT’s increasing pervasiveness. It now accounts for over half of American firms’ investment in equipment (see chart). In the countries of the OECD, the organisation’s secretariat estimates, it accounts for more than 8% of value-added and nearly 6% of employment. Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, an economist at the OECD, says, “For most OECD countries, the prospects are of a very fragile and weak recovery, for the overall economy and thus for IT.”

Even if corporate investment in IT does bounce back faster than expected, it could be some time before the effects feed through to the broader economy. In a new book, “Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology Is Reshaping The Economy”, Erik Brynjolfsson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Adam Saunders of the Wharton School point out that it usually takes five to seven years for IT investments to produce substantial returns because it typically takes that long for companies to make the organisational changes needed to capitalise on the new technology. What is more, Mr Brynjolfsson points out, the recession has encouraged companies to focus their IT investments on boosting the productivity of shrunken workforces, which may mean that unemployment remains stubbornly high for some time to come.

So the parties in San Francisco seem premature. Yet the recession has also accelerated trends that could make for a bigger celebration later. It has speeded up the adoption of promising new technologies, such as cloud and mobile computing. Without the crisis, consumers might not have rushed to buy cheap netbooks or even smart-phones. Needing to cut investment, companies looked more closely at software delivered as a service over the internet. One firm that has grown consistently this year is Salesforce.com, the largest provider of such offerings.

These trends have also been fuelled by the shift of the industry’s centre of gravity to emerging markets, where consumers have less money to spend on technology and companies are more likely to outsource their IT (see article). Countries such as China and India have seen IT spending increase by up to 30% annually in recent years and account for much of the industry’s recent growth. Between 2003 and 2008, developing countries’ share of spending on IT grew from 15% to 24%, according to the OECD. Developing countries also make more than half of the world’s electronics. China alone churns out more than a quarter, compared with just 3% in 1995, according to Reed Electronics, another market-research firm.

As for rich countries, the crisis has prompted governments to speed up IT investments which might otherwise not have become a priority for years, says the OECD’s Mr Wunsch-Vincent. The stimulus packages of most countries in the OECD include large sums for smart power grids, digitisation of health records and the deployment of broadband networks. All this, he says, should boost productivity and employment in time, provided the politicians have spent wisely—a big if.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: New Work from Chinese Turkistan

Hello,

I just wanted to write to make you aware of some new work I've completed on my multi-year project about Chinese Turkistan, or China's northwestern Xinjiang province.

The project has been an exciting progression in both the disciplines of anthropology and photography, in an attempt to emulate the methodology of the great documentary photographers of the past century. It's been a most challenging task, and at stages it has been an incredibly rewarding process. The task at hand, is still that of documenting a culture and a way of life that is struggling to come to grips with an ever expanding Chinese presence throughout the region. This struggle, in my opinion, will always exist at some level; and my documentary project may never have a finite ending because of that. But still I continue to visit the region several times a year, capturing glimpses of a culture on its last legs - so to speak.

Xinjiang was in the news for all of the wrong reasons during much of July and August for ethnic riots in the city of Urumqi. And while Urumqi was clearly the flashpoint, the rest of China's largest province remains relatively calm as the local population comes to terms with the development goals of the regional government. Below are two links. The first is to a series of new work, some of which was included in a gallery show that I had in Toronto, Canada in August 2009. The second link is a wider edit of both new and old work covering the last several years.

The New Work:
LINK: http://archive.ryanpyle.com

A Wide Edit of Old and New work:
LINK: http://archive.ryanpyle.com

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Bizarre Driver

Hello.

As part of my profession, I end up hiring a lot of drivers. Almost every job I am involved in requires me to travel somewhere and hire a driver so that I can get either from A to B, or so I can make multiple visits in one day without worrying about standing around waiting for taxi's.

With that being said I can say with confidence that I've hired hundreds of drivers over the last nine years in China. I've had the chain smokers, the mobile phone talkers, the drunks, and one who fell asleep at the wheel. But don't think it is all negative; I've had a few gems as well.

Last week I was bumbling around Hainan Island working on a story and I hired a driver to take me from the provincial capital in Haikou along the coast to south to Sanya. The drive was very pretty and at one point, after cruising through endless stretches of cocunut plantations, we came across a massive mountain right on the coast.

My natural reaction when I see something like that is: let's get to the top and see what the coast line looks like. And after convincing my driver it would be exciting to veer off our original path for just a few minutes, he said he would try the road that seemed to be leading up the mountain. And so we followed the narrow switch backs for almost 20 minutes twisting and turning until we reached near the top of the mountain. Once there, it was just a short walk up some bamboo stairs to the summit of the mountain, and endless views north along Hainan's coast. I popped out of the car and started towards the stairs, my assistant was close behind me; but alas the driver stayed put.

Dumbfounded I walked back to the car and asked him if he wanted to come along? Then mentioning that I wanted him to join us. He said no and reclined his seat and closed his eyes. I asked him if he had been up to the top of this mountain before, he said no; never having opened his eyes. I let it go.

Upon reaching the summit I was amazed by the incredibly beautiful coast line; I shot a bunch of shots with several different lenses and once finished I just sat back and gazed out at the ocean for a good half an hour; taking in the salty sea air. It was a perfect moment of relaxation after a few hectic days of traveling and shooting.

Upon getting back to the car my assignment was beaming about how lovely the view was, my driver had been out cold; sleeping like a log. Once we got back in to the car I asked again if he would like to take a quick peak, he said no, started his car and we carried on with our trip down to Sanya.

Odd? Normal? Lazy? Unmotivated? Generally unhappy? Focused? Goal Oriented? Exhausted?

It strikes me as odd that sometimes in China, particularly men, don't seem very adventurous or care much to seek out the natural beauty of their own country. Are they above it all? Or just simply uninterested? I couldn't believe it when my driver said he wasn't going to come with us. There was not even an entrance fee. It was free. Clearly you don't have to be a photographer to enjoy an incredible mountain top coastal view. What gives?

Mountain Viewing Note: Travel from Haikou to Wenjiao on the provincial highway. From Wenjiao continue East until you reach LongLou. Once you get their you'll be able to see the massive mountain. Just head due East, straight to the ocean. At the bottom of the mountain you'll see signed that indicate that the site is a nature reserve, then about half way up you'll see another sign asking you to turn back and that it is forbidden to enter; ignore that one and keep ascending. You'll have to park you're car at the Chinese Naval Base at the summit of the mountain, don't worry there are fairly tourist friendly. Stay away from the base and take the bamboo stairs up to the summit, opposite the base. Enjoy the view.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Print Media Relationships

Hello.

A friend of mine recently introduced a series of short movies on YouTube that are pretty hilarious.

I wanted to share them with you all. The person uploading the video is Mr. Trotty57. Not sure if this person is also the creator or not. There are several hilarious videos depicting classic relationships between editors and photographers and writers. If you are in the industry, it should provide a giggle.

Follow This Link.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Global Post - Hakka Houses

Hello.

I'm very pleased to say that my Hakka Apartment feature from Fujian, China got a nice SPREAD
in the online magazine GLOBAL POST.

Global post seem to be making strides at becoming a formidable force in online news. They have a strong collection of contributors, as well as a decent budget and a great group of editors.

This will hopefully help balance the landscape between print and online magazines and help offer up a new venue for writing and photography. Fingers crossed they keep it at. I would love to be able to blog about further posts.

Click SPREAD for a link to my work.


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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: The State of China's Economy

Hello.

It would appear that Chinese tycoons and corrupt officials have hijacked the Chinese economy and manipulated it for their own ends, in a political-economic system that Mr. Wu Jinglian calls "crony capitalism".

Who is Mr. Wu, and why should we care?

Well, he is a 79 year old economist and has just been the subject of an excellent profile by David Barboza of the New York Times.

Mr. Wu, or "Market Wu" as he was known after advising Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, has begun speaking out against China brand of Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics. While calling for an economic clean up, he has even gone so far as to push for a British-style democracy, advocating that political change in China is inevitable. And yes, Mr. Wu's sharp criticism has landed him in hot water with the current regime; so much so that he has been officially branded a SPY by Chinese state run media; although the actual authorities in China deny any investigations involving Mr. Wu.

Stories like this one, by David, offer an incredible and unique glimpse in to how China has progressed since 1979 and where China is headed. Mr. Wu clearly holds the keys to all the good economic gossip. Ten years ago, or even five years ago, men like Mr. Wu would have never spoken out for fear of retribution. But more and more Chinese folks with an insiders scoop or something unique to say seem to no longer be afraid of speaking their mind, or calling a spade a spade.

In Mr. Wu's case he is obviously in the twilight of his career and doesn't seem to fear anything; let alone retribution by the government. So what does this aging economic insider have to say about China? In a nutshell, that economic reforms in the early 1980s have been responsible for fueling growth and altering the course of an entire nation. But that rapid growth also opened the flood gates to official corruption. And that the government is prone to meddle in the market too often and this: widens the income gap, protects inefficient monopolies and as led to an air of cronyism between big business and politics.

Mr. Wu after being banished to the farms of Central China during the Cultural Revolution returned to reach the highest levels of influence, advising Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin on macro economics and how to clean up massive State Owned Enterprises. Having always been quick to strike, Mr. Wu isn't holding back any punches indicating that China must really being to change it's ways or the country's future is far from guaranteed - global stock markets take note. Mr. Wu sees a traditional battle between Maoists and Reformers in the current government tearing this country apart, with Maoists pushing for central planning and Reformers wanted to line their own pockets. After seeing so much change since 1979 you might expect Mr. Wu to be an optimist, but he is not; indicating that cronyism and corruption are undermining the future of China.

The original article by David Barboza of the New York Times can be found by following this LINK.

Let's seriously hope people people like Mr. Wu start popping out of the woodwork; their stories are profound, historically important and make for a great read.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Mao's Grandson, a General

Hello.

With all the huff and puff surrounding the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China a few weeks back it was easy to miss the breaking news that Chairman Mao's grandson, the 39 year old Mao Xinyu, became the youngest Major General in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) history in late September.

Although his promotion has not been officially announced by the PLA, it has appeared as a story in several state run newspapers and has set the blogging world alight in China. Why has their been so much interest online about this young Major General (See link to pictures)? According to bloggers it's because he was a mediocre student, comes across a bit unkept and is a rather large fellow - weighing in at around 220 pounds. Let's just say he doesn't really look field ready.

Laughing or not, being Chairman Mao's grandson in China is a big deal and the official media are much more respectful than folks online. But it appears that his promotion is part of a coming out party that may also include him leaving the military in the near future and getting more involved in politics, perhaps as a big city mayor or a provincial party secretary. I'm not sure if China is ready for another Mao in politics, but this is a story worth keeping an eye on in the coming years. It always boggles my mind how far underlings of famous leaders can get before people around them start to realize that they've fallen far from the papa-tree; but in this case that could be a very good thing as Chairman Mao's political and economic policies wreaked havoc on Chinese people from 1949 until his death in 1976,

Follow this LINK
to see the story and images of Mao's Grandson.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Overcrowding in Shanghai

Hello.

The world maybe suffering from economic turmoil, but that hasn't stopped boatloads, trainloads and busloads of people from showing up in Shanghai, China looking for work and a better life. The situation has gotten so intense that the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission (SPFPC) is looking for ways to better distribute the population density from the crowded city center out in the suburbs.

It turns out that there are roughly 18.88 million people in Shanghai. I say roughly because a) people are coming and going all the time, and b) the Chinese government, both local and national, love to round off numerical values to include as many 8's as possible; as 8 is a lucky number in China.

With almost 19 million people scrabbling around bustling Shanghai, the SPFPC are looking at ways to avoid overcrowding. About 1/2 of all the residents here live in the massive 600-square kilometer downtown area, and the rest live in various suburbs around the city.

It's important to remember that this overcrowding is mainly due to mass migration of people from other provinces to Shanghai, as people chase their middle class ambitions. By SPFPC numbers it looks like Shanghai is growing by around 300,000 or 400,000 people a year. No small number for a city rushing to build and develop infrastructure after almost starting from scratch twenty years ago.

Solutions are difficult to find, if China starts telling people that its biggest cities are off limits; or starts restricting movements there would be a huge backlash. The only real solution would be to encourage second tier cities to develop faster and become better places to live, with better economic opportunities; and that may actually happen as Shanghai gets too expensive and factories and offices such for cheaper wages and rents.

The above image is a crowded neighborhood in an older part of Shanghai; where migrants often first land in their bid to find work and start a new path.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Being Seriously Undercut

Hello.

I do my best to try and avoid producing corporate photography for Chinese companies. There are a lot of great China's companies out there doing some incredible work, producing wonderful products and doing so in a generally responsible way.

But often where the trouble begins is with day rates, fee's, expenses, and of course copywrite. Much of the trouble stems from the fact that the corporate photography industry is China is not very mature, another reason is that there is so much local competition that drives prices down. And a recent example infuriated me so much that it motivated me to blog.

I do a significant amount of work for Public Relations companies and their clients. And recently one of the top PR companies in Asia called me up and asked me to prepare a quote for a local Chinese client; early on they told me that the client didn't have too much money and was looking to keep the copywrite of the images, what a way to start negotiations!

First of all, I don't give up copywrite. Ever.

You can shoot corporate work for a corporate client and keep the copywrite; usually by offering them various licensing terms. That way if you take a killer image that the company wants to use for decades to come; it will generate a nice residual income for you, but alas I am in China and getting these messages across to clients can be difficult at best. My example continues.

So I wrote up a brief proposal indicating a fee for the work and clauses that allow me to keep the copywrite and another clause explaining the licensing fee. My proposal was rejected. Then I re-drafted the proposal indicating that I would keep the copywrite but they could use the images for a multiple year term, which was very generous on my part. But they wouldn't budge on the copywrite and apparently my day rates were also much much too high. Essentially, I walked away from the deal. The terms were too difficult and I felt although the project was interesting it had to be on my terms; and they weren't budge.

I just found out a few days ago that the client hired a local photographer/videographer for US$300 per day and he agreed to give up all copywrite to the corporation. I was essentially undercut, not a winning day for the corporate photography world. And at US$400 per day it's a virtual steel assuming the quality is at a high level, which is no guarantee in any part of the world.

Lessons learned are many. First is know your price, know what you will work for and what you won't work for. The jobs you want will eventually find you. Remember, most of your career will often be defined by the jobs you turn down, and not the jobs you take.

It's a jungle out there.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Hakka Tulou Buildings in Fujian

Hello,

I'm writing to make you aware of some new work I've produced. The photos revolve around the Hakka Tulou houses in remote Fujian province. The story is a remarkable testament to how unique some parts of China still remain, and what wonderful treasures they posses. You may not remember what a Hakka Tulou is, but you'll remember them once you see the images. My goal was to not only capture the remarkable architecture but also the culture and the life of the people living there. Please follow the link below to view the images online.

LINK: Ryan Pyle Archive

A Brief Summary:
In 2008 UNESCO granted the Tulou "Apartments" World Heritage Status; siting the buildings as exceptional examples of a building tradition and function exemplifying a particular type of communal living and defensive organization. The Fujian Tulou is "the most extraordinary type of Chinese rural dwellings" of the Hakka minority group and other people in the mountainous areas in southwestern Fujian, China. The Tulou is usually a large enclosed building, rectangular or circular in configuration, with a very thick weight supporting earth wall (up to 6 feet thick) and wooden skeletons, from three to five stories high, housing up to 80 families. These earth buildings usually have only one main gate, guarded by 4-5 inch thick wooden doors reinforced with an outer shell of iron plate. The top level of these earth buildings has gun holes for defense against bandits. They are a testament to the unique cultures that existed throughout China.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: China's Drive to Go Solar

Hello,

Once again the New York Times has given me a lovely opportunity to visit, along with Keith Bradsher, the SunTech offices and manufacturing center in Wuxi, China. Did I mention I'm the luckiest guy in the world and I love my job? I love factory visits and I love visiting successful Made IN China companies, like SunTech.

Keith writes a great story looking at the industry in general and SunTech specifically. It was my first collaboration with Keith and we had a great time, and really enjoyed our visit. Read on below.

Keith Bradsher's article is below. Or you can click HERE
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Copywrite: New York Times
August 25, 2009
China Racing Ahead of U.S. in the Drive to Go Solar

By KEITH BRADSHER
WUXI, China — President Obama wants to make the United States “the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the United States.

Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, said in an interview here that Suntech, to build market share, is selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping.

Backed by lavish government support, the Chinese are preparing to build plants to assemble their products in the United States to bypass protectionist legislation. As Japanese automakers did decades ago, Chinese solar companies are encouraging their United States executives to join industry trade groups to tamp down anti-Chinese sentiment before it takes root.

The Obama administration is determined to help the American industry. The energy and Treasury departments announced this month that they would give $2.3 billion in tax credits to clean energy equipment manufacturers. But even in the solar industry, many worry that Western companies may have fragile prospects when competing with Chinese companies that have cheap loans, electricity and labor, paying recent college graduates in engineering $7,000 a year.

“I don’t see Europe or the United States becoming major producers of solar products — they’ll be consumers,” said Thomas M. Zarrella, the chief executive of GT Solar International, a company in Merrimack, N.H., that sells specialized factory equipment to solar panel makers around the world.

Since March, Chinese governments at the national, provincial and even local level have been competing with one another to offer solar companies ever more generous subsidies, including free land, and cash for research and development. State-owned banks are flooding the industry with loans at considerably lower interest rates than available in Europe or the United States.

Suntech, based here in Wuxi, is on track this year to pass Q-Cells of Germany, to become the world’s second-largest supplier of photovoltaic cells, which would put it behind only First Solar in Tempe, Ariz.

Hot on Suntech’s heels is a growing list of Chinese corporations backed by entrepreneurs, local governments and even the Chinese military, all seeking to capitalize on an industry deemed crucial by China’s top leadership.

Dr. Shi pointed out that other governments, including in the United States, also assist clean energy industries, including with factory construction incentives.

China’s commitment to solar energy is unlikely to make a difference soon to global warming. China’s energy consumption is growing faster than any other country’s, though the United States consumes more today. Beijing’s aim is to generate 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020 — or less than half the capacity of coal-fired power plants that are built in China each year.

Solar energy remains far more expensive to generate than energy from coal, oil, natural gas or even wind. But in addition to heavy Chinese investment and low Chinese costs, the global economic downturn and a decline in European subsidies to buy panels have lowered prices.

The American economic stimulus plan requires any project receiving money to use steel and other construction materials, including solar panels, from countries that have signed the World Trade Organization’s agreement on free trade in government procurement. China has not.

In response to this, and to reduce shipping costs, Suntech plans to announce in the next month or two that it will build a solar panel assembly plant in the United States, said Steven Chan, its president for global sales and marketing.

“It’ll be to facilitate sales — ‘buy American’ and things like that,” Mr. Chan said, adding that the factory would have 75 to 150 workers and be located in Phoenix, or somewhere in Texas.

But 90 percent of the workers at the $30 million factory will be blue-collar laborers, welding together panels from solar wafers made in China, Dr. Shi said.

Yingli Solar, another large Chinese manufacturer, said on Thursday that it also had a “preliminary plan” to assemble panels in the United States.

Western rivals, meanwhile, are struggling. Q-Cells of Germany announced last week that it would lay off 500 of its 2,600 employees because of declining sales. It and two other German companies, Conergy and SolarWorld, are particularly indignant that German subsidies were the main source of demand for solar panels until recently.

“Politicians might ask whether this is still the right way to do this, German taxpayers paying for Asian products,” said Markus Wieser, a Q-Cells spokesman.

But organizing resistance to Chinese exports could be difficult, particularly as Chinese discounting makes green energy more affordable.

Even with Suntech acknowledging that it sells below the marginal cost of producing each additional solar panel — that is, the cost after administrative and development costs are subtracted — any antidumping case, in the United States, for example, would have to show that American companies were losing money as a result.

First Solar — the solar leader, in Tempe — using a different technology from many solar panel manufacturers, is actually profitable, while the new tax credits now becoming available may help other companies.

Even organizing a united American response to Chinese exports could be difficult. Suntech has encouraged executives at its United States operations to take the top posts at the two main American industry groups, partly to make sure that these groups do not rally opposition to imports, Dr. Shi said.

The efforts of Detroit automakers to win protection from Japanese competition in the 1980s were weakened by the presence of Honda in their main trade group; they expelled Honda in 1992.

Some analysts are less pessimistic about the prospects for solar panel manufacturers in the West. Joonki Song, a partner at Photon Consulting in Boston, said that while large Chinese solar panel manufacturers are gaining market share, smaller ones have been struggling.

Mr. Zarrella of GT Solar said that Western providers of factory equipment for solar panel manufacturers would remain competitive, and Dr. Shi said that German equipment providers “have made a lot of money, tons of money.”

The Chinese government is requiring that 80 percent of the equipment for China’s first municipal power plant to use solar energy, to be built in Dunhuang in northwestern China next year, be made in China.

Dr. Shi said his company would try to prevent similar rules in any future projects.

The reason is clear: almost 98 percent of Suntech’s production goes overseas.
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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: China's 60th Birthday

Hello.

I don't often say it much, but I'm very proud and excited about what China's managed to accomplish in the last 60 years; given that the first 30 years (1949-1979) were a complete regression.

I've lived here in the Middle Kingdom for almost a decade, and I hope to live here for several more; and during that time I've seen a lot of change. Much of it for the better. But let's not forget that while the country has developed rapidly in the last thirty years it is still a far cry away from what the Communist Party said it might be in the late 1940s when they were trying to build a power base. Back in the days General Mao and his team like to throw around terms like a multi-party system, and an independent judiciary; and today in 2009 we are still far from those ideals.

But yes, economic growth has lifted many people out of poverty to the point where some don't care much about politics; much to the pleasure of Party leaders. But there are huge gaps in the system and they are becoming more difficult to close as each day passes. The Party's control over the judiciary and the economy has led to so much rampant corruption that much of China's business and political environment operates like a mafia of sorts.

The birthday celebrations today in Beijing, and throughout the country, will offer a lot of military pomp and party propaganda, but that is not what I think about when I envision China and its future. I think about China's young entrepreneurial class; who have migrated to the big cities and started up their own businesses, and in stark contrast to that I fear for the the 700 million agricultural class that the dynamic growth as passed over; what will their futures hold? As an aside, it has always been the small entrepreneurs in this country that have made the business and working environment the stuff of miracles. And it should be the governments responsibility to maintain that fair business environment for years to come. Let's hope the party leaders understand their role.

Focusing back on economic growth, clearly there are mis-steps and not all if fair and transparent; but we're only one generation removed from Chairman Mao and his Cultural Revolution. I know that is no longer an excuse, but many of those in power at the moment have been strongly influenced by that period of history, and it still affects governance and accountability throughout the ranks. Developing from a third world country to a first world country takes a significant amount time, especially when leaders in power have had a largely patriotic educational foundation. Once the next few rounds of county level and provincial level government officials are bettered educated and a bit more "worldly", meaning simply thinking beyond their individual county fiefdoms, issues regarding personal freedoms and rule of law may indeed make headway; but I won't hold my breath.

If the government doesn't take steps to ease in more choice and personal freedoms, it is my opinion, that the Party will have missed a glorious opportunity to progress and develop in a way in which the global community can better respect and look up to. Much work needs to be done. No time can be wasted.

When I decided to move to China in 2001 I thought I was moving to a virtual backwater. A remote part of the world where I could learn photography on my own and document a country that I found fascinating and challenging. Just eight years later I'm amazed at how rewarding my personal and professional journey has been and how comfortable my home town of Shanghai has become. Progress for "most" is happening; but development and growth is a messy business and not for the faint of heart.

Even with all it's problems and headaches of running a country with 1.3 billion people; perhaps now is a good time to give a bit of praise to the government for actually keeping this country together from 1949 to 2009; as the country's journey to reach this point has been far from easy. Ruling with an iron fist or not, I can drive on a four-lane expressway from Shanghai to Kashgar and jump on a plane to just about any remote corner of the country I choose. Sure there are people, minority groups and counties that have been left behind, but with such brutal breakneck growth people are bound to be left out and be plenty pissed off about it.

Can China develop in a more sustainable manner? Include more people in the spoils and focus on cleaning up the environment? What about bringing about proper regulation and an independent rule of law? How about making a whole hearted effort to stop corruption, even throughout the inner party circles in Beijing?

So it is now that I raise my glass in a very guarded and unsure manner, here is looking at the next 60 years. Will we always have just "one party"? Will State Owned Enterprises still dictate policy and protectionism? Will the little person ever get a voice? Will the fist be removed from the puckered cheeks of the country's media? In 2069, will I still be blogging and living in Shanghai at the tender age of 91?

There are many challenges ahead. But there have been many successes behind us. I'm proud to live in China, and honored to have a chance to be documenting this country's rise. Peaceful or not, I'm here. Sustainable or not, I'll be trying to understand the who, the how and the why.

Onwards and upwards; and hopefully in a more equal and transparent way.

PS. Ai Weiwei, a Chinese painter, artist, architect and photographer recently wrote and essay for TIME magazine about China at 60yrs. Ai Weiwei's father was a famous poet who was exiled to Xinjiang and spent most of his life being harassed. Ai Weiwei's essay offers a much more personal perspective to China's development and growth. His essay is a very interesting read. You can find his essay HERE.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: iPhone Available in China?

Hello.

It appears that, according to a wide variety of news sources, that China Unicom and China Mobile are set to being selling the Apple iPhone in the world's largest mobile phone market. Why has it taken so long and what will be the outcome?

It has taken so long because the revenue sharing model that Apple hammered out with it's US and European partners just wouldn't fly in China. And why would it? Reports suggest that Apple will sell some 3 million iPhones in China during the first 12 months of the launch, perhaps a revenue sharing deal was a bit too greedy. Apple, and the iPhone are popular in China. There have been a lot of fakes produced and smuggled phone's from the US and Hong Kong can be found at any computer market throughout the country.

But don't think all will be free and fare. The iPhone's sold in China will be stripped of their wireless (wifi) capabilities. My guess is that is to generate more fee's for China's massive mobile phone companies. Wouldn't it be nice just to see China adopt a product or a service as is? Instead of tinkering and making things painful and inefficient. Painful to watch some days.

ps. The image above is from a story I did with the NYT a few years back out Chinese folks getting their iPhones from the US and "unlocking" them in China. So really, the iPhone has already been in China for at least 2 years.

LINK: WSJ Story Please Click Here

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: China's Steel Town

Hello,

I wanted to write and make you aware of some recent work I've completed. I recently visited Baotou city, home to Bao Steel - China's seventh largest steel producer, for several reasons. The first reason was to look at how China was, after the Olympics, back to it's old polluting ways. Upon my visit to Baotou it was business as usual, even though they had been hurt by the financial crisis the mill was still full steam ahead with China's stimulus package focused on infrastructure local steel mills have increased production year on year. Now with Chinese steel companies bargaining hard, perhaps too hard, for iron ore prices; it might be an interesting time to actually take a look at what one of these steel mills, and the town surrounding it actually look like.

LINK: Ryan Pyle Archive

Summary:
Baotou is an excellent example of being a one-industry town, and that industry is steel. Baotou is also notorious as a big polluter mostly from the large Bao Steel factory. With Baotou sitting directly west of Beijing much of Beijing's notorious smog and haze comes from cities such as Baotou. With the economic stimulus package that was just earmarked for infrastructure and housing you can bet China's environmental goals have been put on hold for the foreseeable future, my guess is that the residents of Baotou may not mind too much; after all social stability is key.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Ba Ling Bridge

Hello.

I recently had the opportunity to visit a region of China that has often been overlooked during China's sprint towards modernity, and that region is the province of Guizhou. Guizhou is landlocked and mountainous, meaning it has missed out on China's industrial expansion, export manufacturing and farming innovations. The province is one of China's poorest and has been considered a lost hinterland for centuries. With that being said, the central government is now sprinkling money throughout many of China's rural backwaters in an effort to increase transportation links and re-connect this massive country; as well as help out areas of depressed growth. The Ba Ling River Bridge is one of the most visually telling examples of Beijing's efforts to "bridge the gap" between China's wealthier and poorer regions. The bridge is set to connect the capital city of Guizhou province, Guiyang, with the capital of Yunnan province, Kunming; one of the most mountainous and transport defunct regions of China as deep river gorges and mountain ranges are scattered along the route. I recently visited the bridge and was granted unprecedented access, but for only about an hour as the construction boss was on a long lunch. I even had time to climb the 40+ story suspension tower, which was a treat in high wind. Please follow the link below to view the work:

LINK: Click Here for Gallery

Summary:
The Ba Ling River Bridge, due to be completed in early 2010, is one of China's longest suspension bridges. Measuring 1.4 miles (2.25km) the project is a marvel of Chinese engineering that looks wholly out of place among rural Guizhou provinces farms and rice fields. The Ba Ling River Bridge, soaring a quarter of a mile (400m) above the Ba Ling River, is an example of large-scale infrastructure projects that are being built throughout China in an effort to modernize China's vast western hinterland.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Grazia Neri Closing

Hello.

I try not to post to many news-ish items on my blog, mainly because there are other sites that accomplish this task much more effectively than I do. But today when I woke up I had an email in my inbox that both shocked and saddened me, and I felt compelled to blog.

You see Grazia Neri is not just another agency in Italy. They are "the" agency in Italy. And they have been a leading light in Italian photography for 42 years and my experiences with Grazia Neri have always been great. Their sales and assignment people have always been warm and welcoming.

I have been represented by Grazia Neri, as an assignment photographer, since 2005; just shortly after Corbis scrapped its assignment photography division. At first I think I was just the only person they knew in China and wanted to fill that gap, but over time our relationship grew and we had the chance to collaborate on several exciting projects.

I want to thank all the people I've worked with at Grazia Neri, over the last few years, for their passion for photography and their professionalism. The Italian photography industry lost a key player in progressing photography, all eyes will be watching to see what attempts to step in and fill that void. A sad Friday indeed.

____________________________
Official Press Release - English
- Some financial information has been removed from this post.

After 42 years of excellence and integrity in the world of italian and international Photography and Photojournalism, Grazia Neri Agency is now compelled to enter into liquidation (voluntary winding up). The extreme editorial and advertising crisis that has started in the second half of 2008 and has exploded in 2009 has brought the Agency to a severe financial crisis. All of this in a very short time. The crisis of the italian editorial market is such as not to leave hope for a recover in short or medium time.

We have made all efforts to cut the Agency costs and in the last months and to the last moment we have looked for a suitable strategic partner but with no success.

In this situation, with a huge grief for our history, for the employees, the sales team, the international and italian photographers, agents and friends, for all the splendid human experiences of years, regretting the loss of an important cultural role, Grazia Neri Agency has decided to terminate its activities.

In the next months the Agency will continue its operations only to accomplish ongoing projects, tasks and activities which are necessary to the liquidation.

Thank you for your extraordinary work, creativity, friendship and help that have highly contributed in writing this beautiful collective story of more than forty years.


Michele Neri
Milano, September 17th 2009
____________________________

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Annenberg Slide Show Night

Hello.

For anyone in the LA area tonight there is a Slide Show Night hosted by the Annenberg Space for Photography. Some of my Chinese Turkistan work has been included. The details are below:

LINK: Annenberg Slide Show Night

TEXT:
Slide Show Night
Following the great success of the Slide Show Night hosted by the Annenberg Space for Photography, during the L8S ANG3LES exhibit last April, the Photo Space is pleased offer an evening dedicated to the talents of international photojournalists. On September 17, 2009 the screens of the Photo Space will display a new array of exciting images which both compliment the mission of Annenberg Foundation, as well as the current exhibition.

This Slide Show night is inspired by Pictures Of Year, International (POYi), which focuses on photojournalism and documentary photography. The images gathered for this presentation have been culled from the work of 30 photographers, covering current subjects as varied as addiction, Native American socio-economic issues, International Affairs, Migrant Fishing in the Bering Sea, the fervor of Michael Jackson Fans, the cultures of Chinese Turkistan and Ethiopian Jews.

The program is a non-seated event. Complimentary food and beverage will be provided to registered guests.

Date: September 17th, 2009
This event is fully booked.
Time: 7:00-9:00pm
Location: 2000 Ave of the Stars #10
Los Angeles, CA. 90067
Free Event
Parking: $1.00 with validation in visitors parking lot
For more parking information visit this page.
Participating Photographers:

Cory Arnold
Nina Berman
Larry Brownstein
David Butow
Philippe Engelhorn
Deanne Fitzmaurice
Yves Gellie
Masaru Goto
Katja Heinemann
Ryan Heffernan
Lisa Hogben
Aaron Huey
Kenneth Jarecke
Ann Johansson
Irene Fertik
Catherine Karnow
Ed Kashi
Brenda Ann Kenneally
Rita Leister
Gary Dwight Miller
Mike O’Meally
Darcy Padilla
Ryan Pyle
Benjamin Rasmussen
Espen Rasmussen
David Rochkind
Joseph Rodriguez
Marissa Roth
Q. Sakamaki
Lourdes Segade

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Reflection on my Exhibition

Hello.

A few weeks back I had another post on the Resolve Blog. Please read below:

I recently had an exhibition on my work from Chinese Turkistan, or Xinjiang, China, in Toronto, Canada a few weeks back. And for those readers who aren’t familiar with the process of putting on a gallery show, it can be a very trying experience for any photographer, emerging or established.

The first thing that comes to mind when someone says gallery exhibitions is money. Cash, and cash flow, dominate our lives and setting aside a significant portion of money to research, produce, print, mount and frame is not an easy task by any means. But I’ve found a way, and this is my experience.

In the early days of my time in China I realized that I had a strong connection to the province of Xinjiang, the mainly Muslim region in northwest China. I had traveled there often and felt an immediate passion to tell the story of the people who lived there. But while this passion existed for sometime it didn’t translate in to actually making images there for some years later. In fact it wasn’t until I visited the region on assignment in 2005 that I was able to jump-start my motivation again. That year I visited Xinjiang 4 times, and the following years was much the same. I felt determined not to let this moment slip by, but what moment am I referring to?

The Chinese portion of the Silk Road, once known as Chinese Turkistan, is changing before our very eyes. Old mud brick homes and labyrinth-like old towns are being torn down in the name of “progress”. It’s not an easy thing to stomach, watching a culture and a way of life change month in and month out. My conviction is strong. I am dedicated to the region for the long term.

But once the images are made, what then? Well they need to be developed and then edited, which is something I can manage easily enough. Scans should be made so that you can pitch around your story ideas and perhaps introduce your work to new editors and gallery owners. And if a gallery owner bites and is interested in a show, you need to be ready to actually produce a show; but what does that actually mean?

In my case it means editing my work to a specific set of guidelines usually created by the gallery curator and myself. Then my Kodak TriX 400 negatives are picked up in Toronto and sent over to my printer who hand prints the show in a wet dark room, yes; just like back in the old days. The results, from my printer Bob Carnie, are magical. What Bob can do with a 35mm negative is remarkable and inspiring. Once the print is dried and flattened then it’s mounted, signed and framed. Seems like a simple process but choosing sizes, mounts, frames; as well as watching your costs, and collaborating with the gallery on a guest list is enough to make you want to scream out: “I just want to take pictures, and not deal with all of this other crap!”

As the emotional upheaval reaches it’s darkest hour, then comes the opening. You put on your suit, try to remember to shave, and engage with a captive audience by expressing the passion you carry for your work and your dedication to documentary photography. Because my work is from a remote land and often a misunderstood place, I try always try to give a 20-30 minute lecture prior to each show for those who are interested in coming a bit early for some background to the region and some details of my own past.

I was very touched during this most recent show when a couple, both Uygur refugee’s living in Toronto, attended and thanked me for caring and educating people about their homeland. It was an incredibly touching moment given that the couple had not been in touch with both their parents and two teenage children who are still in Urumqi, the city which experienced ethnic riots in early July.

My photography may not be for everyone, and it may not be very suitable for people to purchase and hang in their homes or offices, but it has a place in this world, it has to. The region of Xinjiang, with its rich Silk Road history and unique culture, is being drowned out by Chinese development and “progress at any cost”. The future for the region is bleak; my only hope is that I can make enough trips out there and continue this journey I’ve set myself on. I hope you enjoy viewing the images.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: New Digital Journalist Posting

Hello.

I just wanted to write and let you know of a new article I've written for The Digital Journalist entitled: "Social Unrest and the 60th Anniversary of the PRC". It talks a bit about some of the trial and tribulations China has been through in the last 18 months and discusses what it might be light trying to cover the 60th Anniversary celebrations in Beijing on October 1st. Article and link are posted below.

LINK: Click Here

TEXT:
Social Unrest and the 60th Anniversary of the PRC
September 2009
by Ryan Pyle

With three weeks to go until China's 60th birthday party on Oct. 1, many of us Middle Kingdom watchers are wondering if China is splitting at its seams prior to its anniversary.

Look back to last March when a group of Tibetans rose up and torched Lhasa, laying waste to shops and killing innocent Chinese migrants from eastern China. The government's response was mass jailing, closing the province to outside observers and journalists and dealing with this "splitist" problem under a veil of secrecy.

Past examples of government control: During the Olympics, big screen television in a small public square posts a message telling people that they will not show the opening ceremonies and that people should not gather in this public space, Aug. 8, 2008. Many watched on their own televisions. The Olympics had caused much fanfare since 2001 when Beijing was officially awarded the games. The city went through many transformations before it was considered ready to host the games.

Just this past July a native Uigur-led protest in Urumqi saw over a thousand protesters ransack businesses and, yet again, kill innocent Chinese migrants from eastern China. The government's response, although there were large numbers of protesters tossed into jails, was much more open. As international photojournalists rushed onto the scene authorities seemed to give them an unusually free hand to report. Will photojournalists now have an easier time working in the country? Had anything changed in the year between the protests to change the government's response? No, in fact, "change" is the wrong vocabulary altogether.
After the two massive riots in regions that cover almost one-third of China's physical territory in which majority Han Chinese migrants were killed, one might think that a change regarding race relations or minority rights would be in order for government officials in Beijing. But alas, all that seems to be on anyone's mind is "social stability" ahead of the 60th anniversary of the PRC.

While China rushes to short-term fixes – the virtual marshal law in Xinjiang and Tibet as well as blocking social networking sites – the government refuses to admit that they have a problem brewing. With a deaf ear on problems "out west," preparations for a momentous military parade, a full-length feature film (on the founding of the PRC) and Olympic-style security are full steam ahead for the Oct. 1 celebrations.

What might one expect in the run-up to the Oct. 1 anniversary? Forget about Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – they have ceased to exist. Visas for everyone, including photojournalists, will be nearly impossible to obtain in September and residents of Beijing will be subject to document checks, police registration and restrictions on movement that were synonymous with the Olympics last August. And, it won't stop there.
Xinjiang has seen a complete Internet blackout. Hotels, residences and even universities have had their access cut; mobile phone text messages have also been blocked in an effort to keep groups from organizing and causing any resemblance of social unrest. The region has been thrown back into the dark ages in order to celebrate 60 years of progress: this is just deeply ironic.

But it is important that you don't walk away from this dispatch thinking that China just has a problem with its minority peoples. In fact, problems run much deeper than that and as China turns 60 it is not taking any chances with issues like freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of information. All this will continue to mean that working freely as a journalist in China will still be difficult.

Will there be an easing of government pressure after the Oct. 1 holiday passes? Most likely, yes. But after watching Iran implode after elections this summer and, more importantly, how Iranians organized themselves online, the Chinese government is more fearful of technology now than it ever has been. The bottom line is that instead of much needed political and legal reforms, what we'll see from the Chinese government after the anniversary is more of the same that will, in turn, lead to more frustration and alienation. And so the vicious circle continues.

Ryan Pyle, an award-winning photojournalist, graduated with a degree in International Politics from the University of Toronto in 2001. He realized a lifelong dream and traveled to China on an exploratory mission. In 2002 Pyle moved to China permanently and began taking freelance assignments in 2004. The next year Pyle, based in Shanghai, became a regular contributor to The New York Times covering China. More recently he has branched out into mostly magazine work for Time, Newsweek, Outside Magazine, Sunday Times Magazine, Fortune and Der Spiegel.

To see more of Ryan Pyle's images and his blog: http://www.ryanpyle.com

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Another Group Beating

Hello.

There has been a bit of a worrying trend over the last few years of group beatings in China that have led to someone being killed, often women or students. What worries me about this particular story is that technology was avoided, security camera's, and the law was taken in to the hands of a group of store security guards.

Now, for five un-educated security guards (whom are seen as just a step above farmers on the social ladder) seem to have felt that they needed to solve this "suspected robbery" on their own. And that is scary. Even if this woman did shop-lift, which is possible, it makes no sense that punishment for that infraction is death by beating. Where are the police? Where is the law? More importantly where is the respect for the law?

Will this incident just slip in to the past or will there be a proper investigation. In China there are a confusing number of security guards and semi-police officers almost everywhere in China. This confusion comes from basically a "make work" project to keep bored men, often uneducated and from the farm, employed and somewhat happy. But they are not respected and my guess is that they accused this woman of shoplifting and she "talked down to the them" and they beat her to death.

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Copywrite: BBC News
Click Here for Story Link
Arrests over China Wal-Mart death

Two Wal-Mart employees have been arrested in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen, in connection with the death of a customer, local police say.

Reports say Yu Xiaochun was intercepted and badly beaten by five Wal-Mart security guards who suspected her of shoplifting.

She died in hospital three days after the 30 August beating.

Wal-Mart has confirmed the incident and said it was fully co-operating with the relevant authorities.
Horrific scene

An eyewitness said she saw four or five young men beating the woman a few hundred yards away from the Wal-Mart store, and she had even gone over to tell them off. She said the scene was horrific.
The dead woman's husband told the media that he had found a shopping receipt in his wife's pocket after he got to the scene.

The victim was 37 years old and had a young son.
The police say they are doing all they can to prevent any public anger from fomenting into a so-called 'mass incident'.
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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Corbis is Blocked in China

Hello.

This is not exactly breaking news but it appears that Corbis, the global photographic agency, is blocked in China. Now this is a little disturbing on several fronts. First of all Corbis manage my stock archive, and they have done so for about the last 6 years. And because of that I constantly view their website to see how my editor edits the stories I submit and how many images of mine are currently being managed by Corbis; at the moment it is hovering around 1200 images.

My archive and financial well being aside, it is interesting to note that Getty Images, Magnum, VII Photo and just about every other photography agency and collective is not blocked in China. So why Corbis? And whom did they piss off?

It's a confusing game trying to understand why some sites in China are blocked and other are not, but it's a bit concerning that the company that manages my archive is blocked in the world's most populous country, a place where magazine advertising is flourishing and one of the few places in the world that is bucking the downward spiral of the publishing industry.

I don't have much else to say on the issue. I just hope the situation is cleared up at some stage in the future. Maybe China is having a dispute with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who owns Corbis. Does anyone out there have any information to share?

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: The Death of Photojournalism

Hello.

In a bleak article posted in the New York Times a few weeks back, it appears that photojournalism as we know it is dead.....or at least in some form of cardiac arrest.

The story focuses on Gamma a French photojournalism agency that has a long and proud tradition of having photographers in the front lines of many of the world's conflict zones over the last 50 years. While Gamma has now filed for bankruptcy protection it seems that they are as much on their knees from the overall photo market - which is on a sharp decline - and the French labor laws, the latter of which seems to have induced the death blow.

We still live in a visual world and pictures are needed, but spending thousands of dollars sending photographers around the world to shoot in film is quickly becoming a distant memory. Budding photographers, like myself, have opted to base ourselves in interesting parts of the world; in an effort to attract magazines and newspapers to use skilled, and responsible, locally based photographers who have an intimate knowledge of what things are like on the ground. Thereby helping cut the costs, but maintaining the high quality, of producing a photo story. But even this is not enough.

Day rates for image makers, like myself, continue to fall and magazines continually ask me to cut back on my expenses where I can. I oblige where I can but I hope that things can turn around soon, or eventually we'll be working for US$100 per day including expenses; which doesn't exactly fund my already cheap lifestyle.

Some photographers have begun to question the business practices of the magazines and newspapers that are losing money, are they editor heavy? Have they built up a system of salaries and expenses that were funded by printed real estate adverts and personals? Now that this business has migrated online things will have to change, but freelance content producers like myself continue to get squeezed. It's true editors, and loads of full time staff, are being cut and jobs are being lost across the board, a single solution there is not. Even the New York Times, perhaps the most storied newspaper, forced a pay cut across the board and had to fire staff and close overseas bureaus.

We are in the midst of crisis and original reporting and in depth photographic work is suffering. It will be interesting to see how Gamma restructures itself and emerges from bankruptcy protection; but there could be more business failures in the coming months. Maybe my father was right, I should have gone in to banking. It's soulless, but Goldman's second quarter profits where US$3 billion. I can't believe I just said that :). New York Times story is below:
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Link to Story: CLICK HERE
Copy Write: New York Times
August 10, 2009
Lament for a Dying Field: Photojournalism

By DAVID JOLLY
PARIS — When photojournalists and their admirers gather in southern France at the end of August for Visa pour l’Image, the annual celebration of their craft, many practitioners may well be wondering how much longer they can scrape by.

Newspapers and magazines are cutting back sharply on picture budgets or going out of business altogether, and television stations have cut back on news coverage in favor of less-costly fare. Pictures and video snapped by amateurs on cellphones are posted to Web sites minutes after events have occurred. Photographers trying to make a living from shooting the news call it a crisis.

In the latest sign of distress, the company that owns the photo agency Gamma sought protection from creditors on July 28 after a loss of €3 million, or $4.2 million, in the first half of the year as sales fell by nearly a third.

Gamma was founded in 1966 by the photographers Raymond Depardon and Gilles Caron. With Sygma, Sipa and, earlier, Magnum, it was one of the independent agencies that helped make Paris a world capital for photojournalism, attracting some of the best photographers the field has produced.

A Paris commercial court gave Gamma’s owner, Eyedea Presse, six months to reorganize itself. The company employs 56 people in its Paris headquarters, 14 of them photographers.

Olivia Riant, a spokeswoman for Eyedea, said there would “inevitably” be job cuts to make the agency viable.

“The business model is not working today,” she said. “So without some changes, it won’t work tomorrow.”

“The problem is that news photography is finished,” Ms. Riant said. “Gamma wants to go back to magazines and newsmagazines. We will stop covering daily news events to more deeply cover issues.”

Gamma’s history shows how the market has changed. The agency was acquired in 1999 by Hachette Filipacchi Médias, a unit of Lagardère S.C.A., which bundled it with others to provide photos for its magazine empire. But the business did not prosper, and it was sold in 2007 to Green Recovery, an investment fund that buys and overhauls distressed companies.

Gamma’s rivals have fared little better: Sygma was acquired by Corbis in 1999, and Sipa by Sud Communication in 2001.

Photojournalism, often said to have begun with the American Civil War photographer Mathew Brady, experienced a golden age lasting from before World War II through the 1970s. Magazines like Time, Life and Paris Match — and virtually all of the world’s major newspapers — had the budgets to put legions of shooters on the ground in competition for the best pictures.

Today, from the point of view of the news image buyer in a magazine or newspaper, it comes down to a calculation for the photo editor: At a time of shrinking advertising revenue and layoffs, can I afford to send a photographer at a cost of $250 a day or more plus expenses? If not, I may be able to illustrate the story adequately with a “live” photo from one of the newswires or with an archival photo, both options available for a fixed monthly subscription.

“This is not a new trend; it’s the continuation of an old one,” said John G. Morris, a former photo editor whose résumé includes years at The New York Times (which publishes the International Herald Tribune), Life magazine and The Washington Post. “I’m 92 years old, and I’ve survived a lot of crises in photojournalism,” he said. “I find the present situation depressing, but I’m crazy enough to be hopeful. There have never been more images out there, and we need more help in sorting out all the information.”

Eyedea Presse said its problems were compounded by a provision of French labor law that requires agencies take on photographers full-time after using a certain amount of their work, a serious competitive disadvantage when the competition overseas employs a much greater percentage of freelancers.

“We held out as long as we could, but this business model just isn’t viable anymore,” Stéphane Ledoux, the Eyedea chief executive, said after the court hearing. “They’ve killed French photojournalism by requiring the agencies to make salaried employees of the freelancers.”

French photographers acknowledge the problem, but they say agency managers exaggerate it to justify job cuts.

The major newswires — The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters, along with regional powerhouses like Kyodo in Japan and Xinhua in China — dominate news photography. But the business of marketing and selling digitized pictures is led by two global companies: Getty Images, founded in 1995, and Corbis, founded in 1989 by the Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. The stock photo companies rose to prominence by buying up hundreds of image archives and making them available for sale online. While they do continue to sponsor photojournalism — Getty Images employs 130 photographers around the world — the companies are, in effect, services for managing digital property rights.

If Eyedea Presse were to be liquidated, its archives of nearly 33 million images, including those from Gamma, Rapho and Keystone, would be a valuable addition to any of the major players.

At Getty, 70 percent of revenue is generated by the sale of stock images, its chief executive, Jonathan Klein, said by telephone. With the addition of resources it calls on through a partnership with Agence France-Presse, Mr. Klein said the agency was gaining market share at the expense of the newswires.

“Photojournalism means the photographers can tell the story themselves in pictures, and there were places where they could publish those photos,” Mr. Klein said. “In the print world, many, if not most, of those places have since disappeared.”

Still, he said, there are reasons to be optimistic, because “thanks to the Web, there are now billions of pages for photographers to show their work,” he added. “That’s led to more photos being used, but at a lower price point.”

Jean-François Leroy, organizer of the Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival, which runs in Perpignan for two weeks beginning Aug. 29, pointed to a declining emphasis in the media on serious subjects — what he called the “disease of the press” — as another problem.

“Photographers are producing plenty of great stuff, but now the media seem interested only in celebrities,” he said. When Michael Jackson died, it wasn’t part of the news, it was the news. How many photographs of his funeral did we really need?”

Mr. Leroy said he would advise budding photojournalists to think very carefully about their commitment to the calling. Twenty years ago, a photojournalist made enough money to live on, he said. “I’m not pretending you would get rich, but you were able to live decently,” he said. “That is not the case now.”

Lorenzo Virgili, a veteran photographer in Paris, said the average salary of a freelance photographer was about €1,700 a month, and that unpaid postproduction work on the computer was taking up ever more time.

Some photographers have taken to working for nongovernmental organizations, large institutions or companies to continue doing what they love, Mr. Virgili said. But that arrangement is ultimately unsatisfactory, he said, because “as a journalist you have a professional ethic, and by working for them you risk compromising your neutrality, you lose your independence.”

Ten years ago, Dirck Halstead, who spent 29 years as a White House photographer for Time magazine, wrote in Digital Journalist: “When I speak of photojournalism as being dead, I am talking only about the concept of capturing a single image on a nitrate film plane, for publication in mass media.” Visual storytelling has itself been around since the Stone Age, he noted, and “will only be enhanced” by the changes now taking place.

Revisiting that column last month, Mr. Halstead wrote that, if anything, conditions today were worse than he had predicted. To be a photojournalist today, he wrote, “You have to be crazy.”

“Those people who will do anything to come back with a story will be out there shooting for a long time,” he concluded.
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--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Outside Magazine "Toughest Shot"

Hello.

I just wanted to write and say that I'm very honored to be included in this years: Outside Magazine "Toughest Shot Issue". While I am not exactly sure that my work was as "tough" as some of the other photographers images, I am excited to be included on their list. And just so you know, Christopher Anderson almost drowned on a boat full of Hatian immigrants to get his shot, I only had to walk for a couple of days at altitude; seems I'm on the soft side of the list. :)

LINK: Click Here

Other notable photographers included are:
Paolo Marchesi | Nicky Bonne | Camille Seaman | Jason Florio | Jeff Hutchens | Ryan Pyle | John Huet | Philipp Engelhorn | Christopher LaMarca | Joshua Paul | Matthieu Paley | Mark Fisher | Chris Anderson | Antonin Kratochvil

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Social Unrest & The 60th Anniversary of the PRC

Hello.

With four weeks to go until China’s 60th birthday party many of us Middle Kingdom watchers are wondering if China is splitting at its seams prior to its 60th anniversary party?

Looking back to last March when a group of Tibetans rose up and torched Lhasa, laying waste to shops and killing innocent Chinese migrants from eastern China. The government’s response was mass jailings, close the province to outside observers and deal with this “splitist’” problem under a veil of secrecy.

Just this past July a Uygur led protest in Urumqi saw over a thousand protesters ransack businesses and, yet again, kill innocent Chinese migrants from eastern China. The government’s response, although there were large numbers tossed in jails, was much more open as international observers rushed on to the scene authorities seemed to give them an unusually free hand to report. Had anything changed in the year between the protests to change the government’s response? No. In fact, change is the wrong vocabulary all together.

After two massive riots, in which majority Han Chinese migrants were killed, in regions that cover almost 1/3 of China’s physical territory, one might think that a change regarding race relations or minority rights would be in order for government officials in Beijing. But alas, all that seems to be on anyone’s mind is “social stability” ahead of the 60th Anniversary of the PRC.

While China rushes to short-term fixes: the virtual marshal law in Xinjiang and Tibet as well as blocking social networking sites, the government refuses to admit that they have a problem brewing. And with a deaf ear on problems “out west”, preparations are full steam ahead for a momentous military parade, a full-length feature film (on the founding of the PRC) and Olympic style security is already in full swing for the October 1st celebrations.

What might one expect in the run up to the October 1st anniversary? Forget about Facebook, Youtube and Twitter; they cease to exist. Visas will be near impossible to obtain in September and residents of Beijing will be subject to document checks, police registration and restrictions on movement that were synonymous with the Olympics last August. And it won’t stop there.

Xinjiang has seen a complete Internet blackout. Hotels, residences and even universities have had their access cut; mobile phone text messages have also been blocked in an effort to keep groups from organizing and causing any resemblance of social unrest. The region has been thrown back in to the dark ages in order to celebrate sixty years of progress; that just smacks of irony.

But it is important that you don’t walk away from this editorial thinking that China just has a problem with its minority peoples. In fact, problems run much deeper than that, and as China turns sixty it is not taking any chances with issues like freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of information. Human rights doesn’t seem to be an area of tolerance either as painfully indicated by the arrest of a human rights lawyer, Xu Zhiyong, on trumped up tax evasion charges for which he is likely to receive a seven year jail term.

Will there be an easing of government pressure after the October 1st holiday passes? Most likely yes. But after watching Iran implode after elections in summer, and more importantly how Iranians organized themselves online, the Chinese government is more fearful of technology now than it ever has been. The bottom line is that instead of much needed political and legal reforms, what we’ll see from the Chinese government after the anniversary is more of the same; which will in turn lead to more frustration and alienation. And so the vicious circle continues.

--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Poll "Prostitutes Trusted"

Hello.

A recent online survey in China ranked Prostitutes as more trustworthy than Politicians. Without getting in to the nitty gritty, the least trusted category includes: real estate developers, agents, secretaries, entertainers and directors.

The article is pasted below.

Copy Write BBC World
________________________
Politicians were deemed less trustworthy than prostitutes

China's prostitutes are better-trusted than its politicians and scientists, according to an online survey published by Insight China magazine.

The survey found that 7.9% of respondents considered sex workers to be trustworthy, placing them third behind farmers and religious workers.

"A list like this is at the same time surprising and embarrassing," said an editorial in the state-run China Daily.
Politicians were far down the list, closer to scientists and teachers.
Insight China polled 3,376 Chinese citizens in June and July this year.

"The sex workers' unexpected prominence on this list of honour... is indeed unusual," said the China Daily editorial.

"At least [the scientists and officials] have not slid into the least credible category which consists of real estate developers, secretaries, agents, entertainers and directors," the editorial said.
Soldiers came in fourth place.
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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: China's Western Gold Rush

Hello.

I had a gallery exhibition a few weeks back on Chinese Turkistan, or China's remote Western Xinjiang province. The area is dotted with oil, mineral reserves and some of the most beautiful natural beauty of any place I've ever been before.

Prior to the reception I gave a 30 minute lecture on the region and my work there. During that lecture someone in the audience asked me a great question: Why are Han Chinese migrants moving in such vast numbers to Xinjiang province and what kinds of work are they doing there?

The question was a good one and I responded with a few personal stories that I had come across: for example the man from Wenzhou who has lived in Korla for 10 years and started out selling refrigerators and is now a multi-millionaire selling drill bits to the oil companies. While that is an extreme example it is interesting to note that the trickle down effect of China opening up the province of Xinjiang is mostly benefiting the Chinese migrants who move west to set up shop. And migrants have been moving west for decades. Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times writes a great piece about the town of Shihezi, an almost entirely Han city. Andrew's story is below:

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LINK to Story: CLICK HERE
Copy Write: New York Times
August 7, 2009
Migrants to China’s West Bask in Prosperity

By ANDREW JACOBS
SHIHEZI, China — They marched through the streets of Beijing, Shanghai and countless small towns propelled by patriotic cheers and thumping drums. It was 1956, and Mao Zedong was calling on China’s youth to “open up the west,” the vast borderland known as Xinjiang that for centuries had defied subjugation.

After a monthlong journey by train and open-air truck, thousands arrived at this Gobi Desert army outpost to find that the factory jobs, hot baths and telephones in every house were nothing but empty promises to lure them to a faraway land.

“We lived in holes in the ground, and all we did night and day was hard labor,” recalled Han Zuxue, a sun-creased 72-year-old who was a teenager when he left his home in eastern Henan Province. “At first we cried every day but over time we forgot our sadness.”

More than five decades of toil later, men and women like Mr. Han have helped transform Shihezi into a tree-shaded, bustling oasis whose canned tomatoes, fiery grain alcohol and enormous cotton yields are famous throughout China.

This city of 650,000 is a showcase of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a uniquely Chinese conglomerate of farms and factories that were created by decommissioned Red Army soldiers at the end of the civil war.

“Put your weapons aside and pick up the tools of construction,” one popular slogan went. “Develop Xinjiang, defend the nation’s borders and protect social stability.”

With a total population of 2.6 million, 95 percent of it ethnic Han Chinese, Shihezi and a string of other settlements created by the military are stable strongholds in a region whose majority non-Han populace has often been unhappy under Beijing’s rule. Last month, that discontent showed itself during vicious ethnic rioting that claimed 197 lives in Urumqi, the regional capital, which is a two-hour drive away.

The government says that most of the dead were Han Chinese bludgeoned by mobs of Uighurs, Muslims of Turkish ancestry whose presence in Xinjiang has been steadily diluted by migration from China’s densely populated east.

“Ever since we arrived they’ve resented us and had no appreciation for how we’ve improved this place,” said He Zhenjie, 76, who has spent his adult life leveling sand dunes, planting trees and digging irrigation ditches. “But we’re here to stay. The Uighurs will never wrest Xinjiang away.”

Even if many Uighurs view the settlers as nothing more than Chinese colonists, many Chinese consider the bingtuan, meaning soldier corps, a major success. In one fell swoop Mao deployed 200,000 idle soldiers to help develop and occupy a resource-rich, politically strategic region bordering India, Mongolia and the Soviet Union, a onetime ally turned menace.

Shihezi and other bingtuan settlements quickly became self-sufficient, a relief to a government lacking resources, and its “reclamation warriors” worked without pay those first few years, steadily turning thousands of acres of inhospitable scrubland into some of the country’s most fertile terrain.

With an annual output of goods and services of $7 billion, the settlements run by the bingtuan include five cities, 180 farming communities and 1,000 companies. They also report directly to Beijing and run their own courts, colleges and newspapers.

“During peaceful times, they are a force for development, but if anything urgent happens, they will step out and maintain social stability and combat the separatists,” said Li Sheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a former bingtuan member who writes about the region’s history.

In those early years, the ranks of the bingtuan were fortified by petty criminals, former prisoners of war, prostitutes and intellectuals, all sent west for “re-education.” During the mid-1950s, 40,000 young women were lured to Xinjiang with promises of the good life: they arrived to discover their main purpose was to relieve the loneliness of the male pioneers and cement the region’s Han presence through their progeny.

Demographics have always been a tactical element of the campaign to pacify the region. In 1949, when the Communists declared the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, there were just 300,000 Han Chinese in Xinjiang. Today, the number of Han has grown to 7.5 million, just over 40 percent of the region’s population. The percentage of Uighurs has fallen to 45 percent, or about 8.3 million.

Their grievances have multiplied even as Xinjiang has grown more prosperous, thanks in part to its huge reserves of natural gas, oil and minerals. Many Uighurs complain about the repression of their Islamic faith, official policies that marginalize their language and a lack of job opportunities, especially at government bureaus and inside the bingtuan.

During a recent visit to Shihezi, armed paramilitary policemen stopped every car and bus entering the city. But only Uighurs were made to step out of vehicles for identification checks and searches.

Neatly laid out on a grid, its sidewalks graced by apple trees and elms, the city is populated by the sturdy and defiantly proud who think of Xinjiang as China’s version of Manifest Destiny, the doctrine undergirding the westward expansion of the United States in the 19th century. But just beneath the self-satisfaction runs a deep vein of bitterness, especially among those who arrived in the 1950s and 1960s.

“I thought I was going to be a nurse, but I ended up sweeping the streets and cleaning toilets,” said Yue Caiying, who moved here in 1963, and, like many of those with an education, was forced to set aside personal ambition.

Lu Yiping, an author who spent five years interviewing women trucked into Xinjiang from Hunan Province, tells of girls lured with promises of Russian-language classes and textile-mill jobs. In an interview published online, he told the story of arriving women greeted by Wang Zhen, the famously hard-line general who helped tame the region. “Comrades, you must prepare to bury your bones in Xinjiang,” he quoted Mr. Wang as telling the women.

Still, for many early settlers, Xinjiang offered an escape from the deprivation that stalked many rural areas between 1959 and 1962, when Mao’s disastrous attempt to start up China’s industrialization led to famine that killed millions.

Early settlers like Ma Xianwu, who arrived here in 1951 and helped dig the first thatch-covered pits that served as shelter, offer a typical mix of conflicted emotions. He expressed wonder at the city he had helped create, but also sorrow over the hardship he and others had endured.

“People would lose ears and toes to frostbite,” said Mr. Ma, who is 94 and nearly toothless.

But any sense of bitterness has faded. “We were serving the motherland,” he said, waving off the adulation of a visitor. “The glory belongs to the party. I’m just one drop of water in the ocean.”
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--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: A Foreign University Teacher in Xinjiang

Hello.

Over the years I've always been interested in learning as much as humanly possible about Xinjiang, and a while back a good friend of mine passed along this first person account of a foreigner named Tim who spent some time teaching English at a University in Xinjiang. I always enjoy a first person account, I hope this makes an interesting read.

The original post can be found: HERE

In case that gets blocked I posted the article below:

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Too late to talk about Xinjiang?

魏一帆　更新于2009年08月2日

I’ve wanted to write about Xinjiang and the aftermath of events because I lived there for several years. Despite trying several times, I have not written anything for a month. Many people have asked me over the past few weeks what I think really happened. They obviously have their doubts about the official version of events. So do I.

The issue of terrorism is an important one to address. The government maintains that the violence on July 5 was the result of an organized effort. Frankly, this seems dubious to me. Whether it is factual or not, the question of why would Uyghurs would want to do this remains. What conditions would lead to such violence?

I can only speak from my experience living and working there for several years. I only have stories to tell, some of which are based on hearsay. But they will give a sense of the frustrations in Xinjiang.

The day I arrived to teach at Xinjiang University, I noticed that none of the minorities wore traditional hats or veils. A student explained to me that it is not allowed. Nor are mustaches. He said if students are caught praying they face punishment, even expulsion. A fellow teacher confirmed this later.

One day a supervisor who was Han Chinese told me that Uyghurs have it very good because of preferential policies. They can have two children and it is easier to get into college. Later that week a Uyghur friend told me of a protest by Uyghur college graduates. He said none of them could find jobs and that the rate of unemployment is much higher than for Han Chinese.

One day I was teaching a group of seniors in college who were looking for jobs. One young man was frustrated because he said he encountered signs at a job fair that said: “Minorities need not apply.”

One day a Uyghur friend invited me to a traditional muslim banquet. I was the only non-Uyghur among several hundred. Drinking alcohol is not permitted in Islam but there was plenty of baijiu. Near the end of the night, one guest leaned over and said to me unconvincingly, “We are not supposed to do this but the Han make us [get drunk].”

One day I was teaching a class and asked, “What will Xinjiang be like in 50 years?” A Han Chinese girl raised her hand and answered, “All Uyghurs will finally be able to speak Chinese.” The government had just begun implementing a policy of Chinese only in all schools.

I answered: “It is very important for the development of Xinjiang for minorities to speak Chinese. It’s the only way to find good jobs. But what do you think will happen to the culture? Many of my Uyghur friends are worried that they will lose it. According to the research I am familiar with, there are better ways to implement this kind of language policy.” A Uyghur student behind her looked up at me with an expression of gratitude and awe. No one is allowed to point out weaknesses in government policy and get away with it except in a situation like this. I’m sure he had never heard that before.

For the past month I have censored myself because I did not want to criticize or even seem to criticize government actions in Xinjiang. I fear for my friends and my job. I’m also waiting for Southern Weekly to print more articles on the situation with interviews of people who can explain the situation more clearly and authoritatively than I can.

The only salient point I can make at this point is that while terrorism is a real danger, it tends to obscure the core issues. And as long as these issues go unresolved, the threat of violence will continue. Public discussion would help resolve these issues.

Perhaps my words are too late now that Xinjiang is largely out of the news cycle. But for my own peace of mind I need to write this. I have censored myself for the past month, contributing nothing to my column but editorial translations. This is because there is a culture of fear regarding Xinjiang which has caused me to keep quiet. This too is a kind of violence.
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--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Online Market Flourishes

Hello.

I just wanted to write and make my blog followers aware of some new work that was included in the New York Times a few weeks back. It was about how a small community college in Yiwu, Zhejiang, China is running classes that trains kids how to be online entrepreneurs using Taobao, an Ebay-like online marketplace. The story focuses on Yang Fugang who is a graduate of the program and has since created a very successful business with his friends. China is a wild place and it's amazing how young folks throughout the country are embracing the internet and learning new ways to earn a living and create their own business. It's really an honor and a privilege to get to work on stories like this; the country is changing so quickly.

The New York Times story written by David Barboza is below:
__________________________________
Story Link: CLICK HERE
Copy Write New York Times
August 10, 2009
An Online Market Flourishes in China

By DAVID BARBOZA
YIWU, China — In the months leading up to his college graduation in June, Yang Fugang spent most of his days away from campus, managing an online store that sells cosmetics, shampoo and other goods he often buys from local factories.

Today, his store on Taobao.com — China’s fast-growing online shopping bazaar — has 14 employees, two warehouses and piles of cash.

“I never thought I could do this well,” said Mr. Yang, 23, who earned $75,000 last year. “I started out selling yoga mats and now I’m selling a lot of makeup and cosmetics. The profit margins are higher.”

Taobao fever has swept Mr. Yang’s school, Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College, where administrators say a quarter of its 8,800 students now operate a Taobao shop, often from a dorm room.

Across China, millions of others — recent college graduates, shopkeepers and retirees — are also using Taobao to sell clothes, mobile phones, toys and just about anything else they can find at neighborhood stores and wholesale markets or even smuggle out of factories.

Internet analysts say this booming marketplace — reminiscent of the early days of eBay, when Americans started emptying their attics for online auctions — has turned Taobao into China’s newest Internet darling.

Though just six years old, Taobao (Chinese for “to search for treasure”) already has 120 million registered users and 300 million product listings. Its merchants produced nearly $15 billion in sales last year.

The company claims that sales through its Web site are already larger than any Chinese retailer. And, Internet analysts say, sales on its site this year will surpass Amazon.com’s expected sales of about $19 billion.

“This is the next big segment for China’s Internet,” said Jason Brueschke, an Internet analyst at Citigroup in Hong Kong. “It’s their Amazon and eBay combined.”

Like eBay, Taobao does not sell anything itself; it simply matches buyers and sellers. It has a firm foothold in China because many parts of the country still have poor transportation and some local authorities favor their own government-owned outlets, making the retailing system inefficient.

The global recession also left once-booming factories overflowing with goods the rest of the world does not seem to want.

The so-called Taobao addicts are helping to pick up the slack in a sluggish economy. “I can’t live without Taobao,” said Zhang Kangni, a graduate student in Shanghai. “First, it’s cheaper. I found a dress at a store in Shanghai. It’s a Hong Kong brand that sells for $175. I found it on Taobao for $33.”

But skeptics ask: Can Taobao actually make a profit and emerge as a true Web powerhouse?

The company is not publicly traded and therefore does not disclose financial information, but listings are free on Taobao and the company makes no money from online transactions. Almost all Taobao’s $200 million in revenue comes from advertising, which the company says covers virtually all its operational costs.

The company has been criticized, however, for contributing to a flourishing trade in counterfeit goods. Taobao brushes aside such criticism, saying it has a new program that is effectively cracking down on counterfeits.

Company executives also say Taobao is poised to earn huge profits, but that their first priority is creating an online community.

“Our vision for Taobao is to build a consumer’s paradise, where people can shop online and have fun,” Jonathan Lu, Taobao’s president, said. “If you make the company better and better, profits will naturally follow.”

His confidence in Taobao’s future comes from the company’s lineage. It is a division of the Alibaba Group, which was founded by Jack Ma. In the past decade, Mr. Ma has created an Internet conglomerate with strong financial backing from Yahoo, Goldman Sachs and the Softbank Group of Japan. Yahoo owns about 40 percent of Alibaba.

Alibaba.com — the conglomerate’s flagship Web site — connects small businesses from around the world with Chinese exporters. Taobao.com does something similar for consumers who want to sell to other consumers.

When Taobao was founded in 2003, it appeared to have no chance. EBay and its Chinese partner, EachNet, controlled 90 percent of China’s online shopping. But Mr. Ma, a former English teacher, quickly undermined eBay’s fee-based service by offering free listings on Taobao, essentially giving away ads to anyone who wanted to sell.

At the time, eBay executives ridiculed the strategy, with many repeating that “free is not a business model.”

But almost immediately, the site took off, and in 2006, eBay pulled out of China, citing dwindling market share and large losses. Today, it is Taobao that commands 80 percent of China’s e-commerce market, according to iResearch.

“Taobao is dominant,” said Richard Ji, an Internet analyst at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. “They’re like an online Wal-Mart.” Mr. Ji says Taobao is a threat not only to traditional retailers but also to big Chinese Internet companies, like Baidu, a leading search engine, because they are competing with Taobao for many of the same advertisers.

Taobao has thrived, Internet analysts say, because people do not need much capital to start online stores. This year, Taobao says its site could help create half a million new jobs, mostly among young people opening new online stores.

Bao Yifen, a 23-year-old recent college graduate, opened her clothing shop with a $5,000 investment in 2007. Today, her Taobao store has sales of about $4,000 a month.

“Three times a week I go to the wholesale market,” Ms. Bao said. “It’s a huge market. About 70 to 80 percent of the stuff is factory leftovers. There are even some brands, but they just cut the labels off.”

Items smuggled into China from Hong Kong, Europe or the United States are also sold on Taobao, evading high import duties and enabling sellers to profit by undercutting the prices of merchandise in regular stores. An Apple MacBook Air that sells for $2,225 in Beijing, for instance, costs just $1,508 in Hong Kong, a difference of 33 percent.

Counterfeit goods are also readily available, even though Taobao claims to have removed two million “fake branded goods” from the site.

Nevertheless, many Taobao sellers acknowledge dealing in illegal goods.

“I work in an O.E.M. factory that produces laptops and electronic devices for Sony,” said one such seller, who identified himself Mr. Feng, referring to an original equipment manufacturer that produces goods for global companies. “We have Sony’s core technology and exactly the same raw materials and components, so we set up our own store selling netbooks and laptops on Taobao.”

A spokesman for Sony, Takashi Uehara, said the company had no comment but was looking into the matter.

Here in Yiwu, which claims to be the site of the world’s biggest wholesale market, Taobao has started to change the look of Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College.

The school’s vice dean, Jia Shaohua, points out an area designated as a start-up site for students seeking to get rich. He points to students taking orders by computer, packaging products, sorting inventory and taking photos of the items for display online, then adds, “Around the school now, there is a whole Taobao industrial chain.”

Every afternoon, even this summer, when the school should be relatively empty, one can hear the ripping sounds of tape being wrapped around boxes in a building that could pass for a United Parcel Service shipping terminal.

“The students don’t need a lot of money,” Mr. Jia said. “They just get orders and go find the items at local factories.”

Mr. Yang, the cosmetics seller, has become a campus hero. He operates his own warehouses a few miles from the school, in the basements of a pair of residential buildings.

Standing in his crowded warehouse, near boxes of Neutrogena sun block, hairpins, toothbrushes and a wide assortment of cosmetics, Mr. Yang says business could not be better.

“Soon, I’ll reach $150,000 a month in sales,” he said, flashing a big grin.
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