Saturday, December 20, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Face Transplant Recipient Confirmed Dead


Hello,

I wanted to make you aware of some breaking news in China. It appears that Li Guoxing, the first recipient of a face transplant surgery in China as been confirmed dead. Li Guoxing received a face transplant surgery in 2006 from surgeon Guo Shuzhong in Xi'an, China. If you can remember Mr. Li, 30 years old when he had the surgery, had is face ripped off by a bear while hunting in rural Yunnan province where he lived in a small village community. Mr. Li's death, it has been said, was due to an infection because he wasn't taking prescribed immune-system drugs properly. Another report says he was favoring herbal medicines instead. No final report on the death will be available because Mr. Li has been buried for several months now, and no autopsy was completed.

Li Guoxing's surgery in 2006 was a ground breaking moment for Chinese surgery and something that I, as a photographer, was interested in covering. Although because I was a foreign journalist in China I was denied access to document Li Guoxing for almost a year after the surgery. In the summer of 2007 I was able to travel to Xi'an and, with Dr. Guo Zhuzhong's permission, follow Li Guoxing for a few days and document his life 1 year after the surgery. I had scheduled a visit to Mr. Li's village for 2009 to see how he was coping with his surgery in his natural environment, but that story won't be possible. Below is a link to the photo essay I shot of Li Guoxing when I visited the hospital in Xi'an in 2007. Above is a slide show of that essay. Also below is the most recent AFP story.

LINK: CLICK HERE TO SEARCH ARCHIVE

STORY: BEIJING (AFP) — A Chinese man who received a rare face transplant in 2006 has died, his doctor and a government official confirmed Saturday, highlighting the risks of a recent groundbreaking US operation.

Li Guoxing, 32, died in July at his rural home in rugged southwestern China after forsaking immune-system drugs in favor of herbal medicine, his surgeon Guo Shuzhong told AFP.

"His death was not caused by the surgery. Our operation was a success. But we cannot rule out a connection with the immune system drugs," said Guo, a surgeon with Xijing Hospital in the northern city of Xian who operated on Li in April 2006.

Qiao Guangliang, chief of Li's village in mountainous Yunnan province, also confirmed the death to AFP.

Both men said the exact cause of death was unknown as no autopsy was performed.

Li's death had been rumoured on Chinese blogs but has received scant attention in the mainstream press.

US doctors in Cleveland said last week they conducted the world's first near-total facial transplant on a disfigured woman.

It was just the fourth known facial transplant.

Doctors in France had performed the first partial transplant in 2005 on a 38-year-old woman disfigured in a dog attack.

The next year, Li, a farmer, underwent an apparently successful operation to replace about half his face after it was ripped off by a wild bear.

A 29-year-old French man then underwent surgery in 2007 for a facial tumor.

Guo said Li defied orders to remain in hospital and went home in late 2007.

Li soon stopped taking prescribed drugs in favour of a local herbal medicine, which Guo said may have caused liver damage.

Guo said the remoteness of Li's home had meant he could not make it to hospital for regular check-ups.

"After his death, I went to Yunnan and suggested an autopsy but his relatives refused" because Li had already been buried, Guo said.

AFP was not immediately able to reach Li's family members.

The US woman, whose identity has been kept secret, has shown no signs of rejecting her transplant, doctors said.

However, facial transplants remain controversial because of the risks and because they are driven by cosmetic, rather than life-saving concerns.


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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Friday, December 19, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: "Better Services for Foreign Media" in China

Hello,

I wanted to share some fine fiction I read in the China Daily just last week. The government has held a press conference indicating that the government officially welcomes more journalists from abroad to cover news events in China. The real slap in the face was that they had the nerve to, in the same breath, mention that they are extending better service and freedom to Chinese journalists as well as foreign journalists. I don't know how anyone who follows my blog feels when they read news like this, but for me - it makes my guts turn.

China is, bar none, one of the most difficult countries to work in as a foreign journalist; and for a Chinese journalist you are essentially taking your life, the life of your family and even close friends, in your hands if you want to publish any kind of investigative reporting. While it's true that the life of a foreign journalist is not in danger, as it is in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and others, it is painstaking at every turn. And that's one of the reasons why a lot of well known photographers actually refuse to accept jobs in China because the bureaucracy and the difficulty of working freely just wares them down too much. All I can say to that is, yes.........yes it does ware you down. In fact, it's down right exhausting. So how are things supposedly changing?

Well, this is the kicker. They aren't really. In the 1990s, from what I've herd, things were really tough for foreign journalists. The country was closed off and there were few foreigners moving around the country at that time, so anyone who wanted to take a quick trip to a remote province was either a journalist or a spy. After the turn of the century things have opened up a lot more. More travelers, better infrastructure and more access to outsiders have created a countryside in China where towns and villages are accessible to travel to. But that doesn't mean that you are free to report from there, in fact, far from it.

Intimidation, confiscation and detention all still exist. You won't have to read too far into my past blogs to find stories about thugs in cars with tinted windows that pull you over and ask for your cameras, all without showing any ID at all. You don't have to travel too far outside of Beijing, or Shanghai, to find a lawless countryside where local officials intimidate and bend laws to get there ways. In fact, just a few weeks ago a report was published in a Chinese newspaper that indicated that government officials were arresting whistle blows of government corruption and sending them to mental hospitals. Their only crime was trying to travel to Beijing to tell officials there how corrupt their county communist party leaders are. And this highlights where the real problem exists: the central government in Beijing as no control over what happens in the rest of the country. A powerful statement, but true.

China has, for centuries, been a provincial place. Emperors have always sat at the head of government in the Middle Kingdom and their influence has been far reaching, but only by bribing and power sharing deals worked out with local warlords. And after a my years in China, having worked in every province, I can tell you that little has changed. In exchange for a show of solidarity and support, the central government has pretty much given a free hand to the provinces to develop at their own will and pace; which in many cases means shocking human rights abuses and complete disregard for even the most basic law.

So what do I think of the news that things will free up? I think it will happen, but not because of any judgement handed down from Beijing. If it happens it'll happen because provincial officials and business men will see the benefit of having some media savvy, and they'll learn some day that intimidating media, and engaging this cat and mouse game only makes all sides bitter; and can often lead to negative reporting.

A journalist who has the time to freely enter a village and speak with all the voices and understand all sides of the story can write a much more objective piece than the journalist who has to sneak in under the cover of night and speak to one or two people and then get chased out by thugs in a Mitsubishi Land Rover; barely escaping to the main expressway which can ferry them to the neighboring province; and hence safety.

--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Reform and Opening: 30 Years Old

Hello,

Today is a historic day. December 18th 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of Reform and Opening in China. That's right, modern China is exactly 30 years old today. And what an incredible 30 years it's been:

- 10%+ growth almost every year since 1980
- China now accounts for 6% Global GDP, in 1978 it was 1.8%
- A 70% increase in grain production
- 250 million people have lifted themselves out of abject poverty
- 200 million people have moved from the countryside to the city creating some dynamic world class cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

On December 18th 1978 Deng Xiaoping declared, after weeks of meetings and 2 years of internal in-fighting, that China was open for business. Since then the country has developed faster than any other country in history. This economic advancement has led to incredible social changes throughout the country and greatly altered the traditional way of life in China.

The key city to this Reform and Opening policy, and the economic boom that was to follow, was the border city of Shenzhen. Formerly a rice field, the city now boasts a stable population of over 10 million people, as well as one of the most successful, until recently, housing and job markets in the country. The city of Shenzhen has continually re-invented itself from being a border town, to a port and shipping town, to a manufacturing hub of textiles and low quality goods. Today it is home to some of China's most successful "home grown" companies like Huawei, BYD and Hansee.

Although, due to an economic crisis in around much of the world, much of the Shenzhen and Pearl River Delta manufacturing sector is currently struggling with rapidly falling demand in the United States and Europe; but the development of this region can not be overlooked as one of the main engines of Chinese growth for the last three decades.

I've been based in Shanghai, China for several years and I have shot extensively in Shenzhen and Dongguan, through many of the ups and down's. Please follow the link to view a selection of images, some recently shot and some unpublished. Of course a much wider selection of images are available on my archive. I hope you enjoy the images.

LINK: Click Here

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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Gongga Work on Travel Photographer Blog

Hello,

Tewfic el-Sawy runs a lovely TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG that covers some of the most interesting travel and documentary photography being created by talented images makers from all corners of the world.

Today I'm pleased to let you know that The Travel Photographer is running a nice little SLIDE SHOW of my work from Gongga Shan, work at was included as an honorable mention in this years Banff Rocky Mountain Culture Awards. It's always nice to see an imbedded slideshow and a wider variety of images, I hope you agree.

Be sure to keep an eye on the Travel Photographer Blog over the coming months. Lots of quality photography sure to come.

--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Monday, December 15, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Canon 5D Mark II's everywhere for XMAS!!!!!

Hello,

I recently visited my local camera market in Shanghai, China; and I'm pleased to announced that every store in the market was flush with Canon 5D Mark II's. The first question many of you may have is: are they fake? The answer is no, my buddy bought one and spent the next few days shooting in Shanghai with lovely low-light results.

The second question many of you might have is: did they fall off the back of a truck? Perhaps. It's clear that Canon is suffering to get these things to market fast enough, and part of that might be because so many are available in China. I recently heard that some shooters in NYC have been on a waiting list for several months to get their 5D Mark II, and I can't help but wonder how many of these camera's in China were prepared for the US and European market but never made it there.

Now don't get me wrong, China has a flourishing photography scene with loads of gifted image makers that can afford a US$2600 camera; and I can assure you that they are flying off the shelves. But surely it's horrible PR for Canon that their newest, and most highly anticipated product in years, is more readily available in Shanghai, China then in the New York City or Paris or London.

So, did I pick one up? Not yet. Why am I waiting? I'm not sure really. I'm not a big techie and I'm not very interested in upgrading my equipment very often but these new 5D's seem to really be a massive improvement to digital image making. I'm sure I'll pick one up around Xmas, a small gift for myself after a manic year of running around this ever changing country that has become my adopted home.

To all those of you in North America and Europe you can't get your hands on a new 5D Mark II? If you're thinking of finally taking that trip to China, it might as well be now - we've got all the gear readily available.


--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Ryan Pyle Blog: Zeiss Lenses for Canon SLR's

Hello,

I'm not an equipment junkie, in fact I'm far from it. I am pretty unresponsive when friends in the industry email me links to blogs with new gear, new lenses, new software and the like. But a good friend of mine recently forwarded me a link that I got really excited about. It seems that Carl Zeiss is now making EF Mount lenses for Canon SLR's, wow!

I've been a Canon SLR user for my entire (relatively short) career and they carry the weight of much of my color editorial work. I've got 3 Canon EOS 1 film bodies and 1 Canon EOS 5D Digital body; along with a host of Canon lenses. But a few years ago I started dabbling with a Leica M6 and I use it for all of my Black and White work, and I've begun using it more and more in for my editorial assignments. It didn't take long, using the Leica Zeiss lenses, to notice that the image quality was superior in many many ways; but still I leaned towards my Canons because of their versatility and convenience.

Now, well it was announced a few months ago, Zeiss is making lenses for Canon Film and Digital SLR bodies and I'm on board in a big way. I've always been a big believer that the camera lens is far more important than the camera body and that quality lenses are an important element to strong image making. Zeiss has come out with a 50mm f/1.4 and an 85mm f/1.4. I'm keen on the 50mm and waiting for the 28mm to follow in early 2009.

The real kicker is that the Zeiss lenses are only marginally more expensive than their Canon counterparts. It seems like a no brainer to make the switch.

For years I've been reluctant to work in digital fearing image quality, but the induction of Zeiss lenses and the new Canon 5D Mark II may very well change my dinosaur-like old school perceptions of quality image making using digital SLR's.

So to all the folks at Zeiss, I'm excited, and let me tell you - it's a rare thing. So how about a free trial?

LINK TO STORY


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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: New Work: Fragile China (Newsweek Cover & NYT)


Hello,

I just wanted to share some new and exciting work with you.

Much of China looks like it get caught up in this global financial slowdown. A government stimulus package for infrastructure should get China back in to that airy double digit growth region again. But some parts of China, and in fact some entire regions of China, are bracing themselves for a shock.

One of those regions is China's Pearl River Delta, home to much of the manufacturing that has helped make China the "Workshop of the World". I've done some work in the region the last few weeks and several of the images have been published in the USA. However, this week I am very honored to have the Cover of Newsweek International, in which they devoted their cover story to China's manufacturing slowdown and what that means for global business.

And I just completed another story about China's steel industry under pressure with the New York Times, Click Here.

You can see a scanned copy of the cover if you Click Here

You can find a link to more images from my series on Dongguan if you Click Here

You can read the Newsweek story if you Click Here


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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Friday, December 12, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Mountain Culture Award: Honorable Mention


Hello,

I just wanted to write to make you aware of a photo essay I recently completed on Gongga Shan or Gongga Mountain. It was included as an Honorable Mention in the awards at the Banff Mountain Culture Awards earlier this year.

The photo essay was a journey through China's remote Sichuan province; departing from the Chinese town of Kangding my writing partner and I walked 4 days (at an average altitude of 4000m) to reach the remote Tibetan Gongga Mountain Monastery. It was very much a journey from Han China to Tibetan China at a time when relations between the two have been severely strained.

Over the years I've dedicated a lot of time to the documentation of various parts of the Tibetan community and this essay was one of the most rewarding, walking an average of 30km per day we passed through one of the most remote and isolated parts of Sichuan's ethnic Tibetan regions. The monastery was a full days walk from the nearest village, a two days walk form the nearest road and perched on the side of a mountain near the Gongga Mountain (7556m) base camp.

The monastery was visited by Dr. Joseph Rock in the 1920s when he documented and explored much of south west China for National Geographic. It was very much Dr. Rock's footsteps in which we walked and planned our journey.

A tight edit of the photo essay can be found at the Following Link

The Rocky Mountain Culture awards can be found at the Following Link


My Interview with the Mountain Culture center regarding the picture is below:

"I had first learned about Minya Konka, or Gongga Shan, from naturalist Joseph Rock. His work in eastern Tibet, now western Sichuan, was pioneering and when he first laid eyes on Minya Konka he believed he had found the largest mountain in the world. He wasn't far off. Minya Konka stands an impressive 7556m and towers above the rest of the range. It's a sight beyond words. The Minya Konka Tibetan Monastery rests at the base of the mountain. My journey to the monastery began on foot in the town of Laoyulin, just outside of Kangding. From there the four-day, 120-km trek to the monastery had taken its toll, walking at an average altitude of about 4000 m. But this is the way many of the pilgrims make the journey to this remote monastery, and it was important to follow in their footsteps to understand the significance of the temple and its role in the community. Each morning at the monastery one monk prays alone in the main prayer hall. It was a damp and cold morning and there was a lovely light coming in from the single window; my only concern was to do justice to the moment."


--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: New Work: Taiwan Investing in China's Healthcare System

Hello,

I wanted to write and let you know of some recent work I completed on Taiwanese investment in China's healthcare industry. BenQ, a Taiwanese conglomerate mostly known for consumer electronics, has opened its first hospital in China geared towards China's medium and lower income families. Many Chinese have lost faith in the large state run hospitals where corruption and efficiencies are well documented. Many patients are keen to try something different and are beginning to put their faith in private hospitals like BenQ's new hospital outside of Nanjing, China - some 300km west of Shanghai.

The work was completed as an assignment with the Wall Street Journal. Below is a link to the article and Photo Essay slide show:

Link to Photos

Link to Article

A Larger Edit: http://archive.ryanpyle.com


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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Monday, November 24, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: 6 Months of Emptiness

Hello,

My efforts to "ramp up" my blog and make it a staple to the way I work has failed miserably.

If you take a look at when my last blog was it was May 23rd, from when I was covering an earthquake in China's Sichuan province. Since then I've added almost nothing to this blog. What's sad is that I've had an incredibly interesting few months of work and I have a lot of unique and interesting stories to share. Which leads me to the central question, why am I not blogging?

The answer has two very clear sides to it. The first is that I don't actually enjoy telling people where I am or what I am doing. Much of this comes from working in a country where the government puts a lot of pressure on foreign journalists. The second reason, and perhaps more importantly, is that I work in a hyper competitive environment being based in China. I'll just take a moment to look at each of these individually.

The government does make life difficult, exceedingly so for freelance journalists who don't have an accredited news company or publication behind their efforts, to access certain places in China for reporting. And I don't feel like letting everyone know where I am and what I am doing all the time. And saying you'll blog about something interesting later once you return to Shanghai never really works. So often I just end up writing nothing. Sad but true.

The second reason is that China is swimming with photographers, up to the brim. And I prefer not to talk too much about my work or what I am up to. Am I too sensitive? Perhaps. Is my work that interesting? Maybe not, but nonetheless that's how I feel about it.

My goals to improve my blog include trying to update my readers with more information about stories that I've completed and avoid discussing about what's in the pipeline. I hope that still makes for an interesting read. I'll also still try to communicate certain frustrations I have working in China and make people aware of certain long term projects, gallery shows and lectures that I'm involved with.

I hope I can stick with that. For those who want more up to date info just add me to your facebook, I tend to use my facebook page as a bit of a working blog so that my friends and family can also see what's going on. And facebook is much more picture and link friendly than this blog space........or at least it's more friendly for people like me who are barely computer literate.

Thanks for listening.


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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Friday, May 23, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: China's Earthquake Coverage

Hello,

As some of you may know I've been working in China's earthquake ravaged Sichuan province for the last week or so and I've put together a strong selection of images that show the devastation that has hit the region.

I was recently interviewed by Daryl Lang of PDN Magazine on what my experiences covering the earthquake were like. Please follow the link below for article, interview and audio slide show.

Ryan Pyle
LINK: http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003807190

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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Photo District News Award

Hello,

I just wanted to share some good news with everyone. An image of mine was recently included in the PDN Photo Annual. The PDN Photo Annual is an awards contest run by PDN, a photo industry magazine. The Photo Annual is a collection of the years most compelling images. I am very honored to have my work appear next to mentors of mine like Ed Kashi and Paolo Pellegrin.

The image I had selected is below, it was a story about China's first face transplant patient.

PDN LINK: http://gallery.pdnevents.com/annual2008/

Image LINK: http://archive.ryanpyle.com/my/Common/PhotoDetailPage.aspx?msa=0&pid=9741074&slid=872ff80f-20ed-40a7-903f-d75ee49a771a&slididx=21&lid=9746836&rstid=0eaa01db-e87a-42b9-8b40-568b5672d4b3&aid=1

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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: The Real China and the Olympics

Hello,

I found this article on the Washington Post today and I feel that it needs to be shared. While I may not agree with all the points the writers raise, I do feel that it should be read and debated openly.

I have copied this from the Washington Post website and without prior consent by either the authors or the newspaper, should anyone object to my posting please let me know and I will remove it. I am not the author of this work, and my only reason for posting this piece to increase the exposure of this article. The article, and the direct link to the Washington Post are listed below:

LINK: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040402982_pf.html

Article
______________________________


The Real China and the Olympics
By Hu Jia and Teng Biao
Saturday, April 5, 2008; A15

This week, a Beijing court sentenced human rights activist Hu Jia to 3 1/2 years in prison for subverting state authority and to one additional year's loss of his "political rights." He was arrested in part for co-authoring, with Teng Biao, an open letter on human rights. Below, The Post printsHuman Rights Watch's translation of the Sept. 10, 2007, letter.

On July 13th 2001, when Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese government promised the world it would improve China's human rights record. In June 2004, Beijing announced its Olympic Games slogan, "One World, One Dream." From their inception in 1896, the modern Olympic Games have always had as their mission the promotion of human dignity and world peace. China and the world expected to see the Olympic Games bring political progress to the country. Is Beijing keeping its promises? Is China improving its human rights record?

When you come to the Olympic Games in Beijing, you will see skyscrapers, spacious streets, modern stadiums and enthusiastic people. You will see the truth, but not the whole truth, just as you see only the tip of an iceberg. You may not know that the flowers, smiles, harmony and prosperity are built on a base of grievances, tears, imprisonment, torture and blood.

We are going to tell you the truth about China. We believe that for anyone who wishes to avoid a disgraceful Olympics, knowing the truth is the first step. Fang Zheng, an excellent athlete who holds two national records for the discus throw at China's Special Sport Games, has been deprived of the opportunity to participate in the 2008 Paralympics because he has become a living testimony to the June 4, 1989[,] massacre. That morning, in Tiananmen Square, his legs were crushed by a tank while he was rescuing a fellow student. In April 2007, the Ministry of Public Security issued an internal document secretly strengthening a political investigation which resulted in forbidding Olympics participation by 43 types of people from 11 different categories, including dissidents, human rights defenders, media workers, and religious participants. The Chinese police never made the document known to either the Chinese public or the international community.

Huge investment in Olympic projects and a total lack of transparency have facilitated serious corruption and widespread bribery. Taxpayers are not allowed to supervise the use of investment amounting to more than $40 billion. Liu Zhihua, formerly in charge of Olympic construction and former deputy mayor of Beijing, was arrested for massive embezzlement.

To clear space for Olympic-related construction, thousands of civilian houses have been destroyed without their former owners being properly compensated. Brothers Ye Guozhu and Ye Guoqiang were imprisoned for a legal appeal after their house was forcibly demolished. Ye Guozhu has been repeatedly handcuffed and shackled, tied to a bed and beaten with electric batons. During the countdown to the Olympic Games he will continue to suffer from torture in Chaobei Prison in Tianjin.

It has been reported that over 1.25 million people have been forced to move because of Olympic construction; it was estimated that the figure would reach 1.5 million by the end of 2007. No formal resettlement scheme is in place for the over 400,000 migrants who have had their dwelling places demolished. Twenty percent of the demolished households are expected to experience poverty or extreme poverty. In Qingdao, the Olympic sailing city, hundreds of households have been demolished and many human rights activists as well as "civilians" have been imprisoned. Similar stories come from other Olympic cities such as Shenyang, Shanghai and Qinhuangdao.

In order to establish the image of civilized cities, the government has intensified the ban against -- and detention and forced repatriation of -- petitioners, beggars and the homeless. Some of them have been kept in extended detention in so-called shelters or have even been sent directly to labor camps. Street vendors have suffered brutal confiscation of their goods by municipal agents. On July 20, 2005, Lin Hongying, a 56-year-old woman farmer and vegetable dealer, was beaten to death by city patrols in Jiangsu. On November 19, 2005, city patrols in Wuxi beat 54-year-old bicycle repairman Wu Shouqing to death. In January 2007, petitioner Duan Huimin was killed by Shanghai police. On July 1, 2007, Chen Xiaoming, a Shanghai petitioner and human rights activist, died of an untreated illness during a lengthy detention period. On August 5, 2007, right before the one-year Olympics countdown, 200 petitioners were arrested in Beijing.

China has consistently persecuted human rights activists, political dissidents and freelance writers and journalists. The blind activist Chen Guangcheng, recipient of the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award and named in 2006 by Time Magazine as one of the most influential 100 people shaping our world, is still serving his sentence of four years and three months for exposing the truth of forced abortion and sterilization. The government refused to give him the Braille books and the radio that his relatives and friends brought to Linyi prison in Shandong. Chen has been beaten while serving his sentence. On August 24, 2007, Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, was kidnapped by police at the Beijing airport while waiting to fly to the Philippines to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award on behalf of her husband. On August 13, 2007, activist Yang Chunlin was arrested in Heilongjiang and charged with subversion of state power "for initiating the petition 'Human Rights before Olympics.' "

China still practices literary inquisition and holds the world record for detaining journalists and writers, as many as several hundred since 1989, according to incomplete statistics. As of this writing, 35 Chinese journalists and 51 writers are still in prison. Over 90 percent were arrested or tried after Beijing's successful bid for the Olympics in July 2001. For example, Shi Tao, a journalist and a poet, was sentenced to ten years in prison because of an e-mail sent to an overseas website. Dr. Xu Zerong, a scholar from Oxford University who researched the Korean War, was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment for "illegally providing information abroad." Qingshuijun [Huang Jinqiu], a freelance writer, was sentenced to a 12-year term for his online publications. Some writers and dissidents are prohibited from going abroad; others from returning to China.

Every year in mainland China, countless websites are closed, blogs deleted, sensitive words filtered. Many websites hosted abroad are blocked. Overseas radio and television programs are interfered with or strictly prohibited. Although the Chinese government has promised media freedom for foreign journalists for 22 months, before, during, and after the Beijing Olympics, and ending on October 17, 2008, an FCCC [Foreign Correspondents Club in China] survey showed that 40 percent of foreign correspondents have experienced harassment, detention or an official warning during news gathering in Beijing and other areas. Some reporters have complained about repeated violent police interference at the time they were speaking with interviewees. Most seriously, Chinese interviewees usually become vulnerable as a result. In June 2006, Fu Xiancai was beaten and paralyzed after being interviewed by German media. In March 2007, Zheng Dajing was beaten and arrested after being interviewed by a British TV station.

Religious freedom is still under repression. In 2005, a Beijing pastor, Cai Zhuohua, was sentenced to three years for printing Bibles. Zhou Heng, a house church pastor in Xinjiang, was charged with running an "illegal operation" for receiving dozens of boxes of Bibles. From April to June 2007, China expelled over 100 suspected U.S., South Korean, Canadian, Australian, and other missionaries. Among them were humanitarian workers and language educators who had been teaching English in China for 15 years. During this so-called Typhoon 5 campaign, authorities took aim at missionary activities so as to prevent their recurrence during the Olympics.

On September 30, 2006, Chinese soldiers opened fire on 71 Tibetans who were escaping to Nepal. A 17-year-old nun died and a 20-year-old man was severely injured. Despite numerous international witnesses, the Chinese police insisted that the shooting was in self-defense. One year later, China tightened its control over Tibetan Buddhism. A September 1, 2007, regulation requires all reincarnated lamas to be approved by Chinese authorities, a requirement that flagrantly interferes with the tradition of reincarnation of living Buddhas as practiced in Tibet for thousands of years. In addition, Chinese authorities still ban the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet and a world-renowned pacifist, from returning to Tibet.

Since 1999, the government has banned many religious beliefs such as Falungong and the Three Servants. Their followers have experienced extremely cruel and planned persecutions. Many died from abuse, suffered torture, brainwashing, imprisonment and labor camp internment for persisting in their faith, possessing religious books, making DVDs and writing articles to expose the truth of the persecution.

China has the highest death penalty rate in the world. Execution statistics are treated as "state secrets." However, experts estimate that 8,000-10,000 people are sentenced to death in China every year, among them not only criminals and economic convicts, but totally innocent citizens, such as Nie Shubin, Teng Xingshan, Cao Haixin and Hugejiletu, whose innocence was proven only after they were already dead.

Another eight innocent farmers, Chen Guoqing, He Guoqiang, Yang Shiliang, Zhu Yanqiang, Huang Zhixiang, Fang Chunping, Cheng Fagen and Cheng Lihe, who confessed their "crimes" after being cruelly tortured by the police, have been sentenced to death and are currently held in prisons in Hebei [province] and in Jingdezhen [in Jiangxi province].

Torture is very common in China's detention centers, labor camps and prisons. Torture methods include electric shock, burning, use of electric needles, beating and hanging, sleep deprivation, forced chemical injection causing nerve damage, and piercing the fingers with needles. Every year, there are reported cases of Chinese citizens being disabled or killed by police torture.

Labor camps are still retained as a convenient Chinese system which allows the police to lock up citizens without trial for up to four years. The detention system is another practice that the police favor, freeing them to detain citizens for six months to two years. Dissidents and human rights activists are particularly vulnerable targets and are often sent to labor camps, detention centers or even mental hospitals by authorities who want to simplify legal procedures and mislead the media.

China has the world's largest secret police system, the Ministry of National Security (guo an) and the Internal Security Bureau (guo bao) of the Ministry of Public Security, which exercise power beyond the law. They can easily tap telephones, follow citizens, place them under house arrest, detain them and impose torture. On June 3, 2004, the Chinese secret police planted drugs on Chongqing dissident Xu Wanping and later sentenced him to 12 years' imprisonment for "subversion of state power."

Chinese citizens have no right to elect state leaders, local government officials or representatives. In fact, there has never been free exercise of election rights in township-level elections. Wuhan resident Sun Bu'er, a member of the banned political party the Pan-Blue Alliance, was brutally beaten in September 2006 for participating as an independent candidate during an election of county-level people's congress representatives. Mr. Sun disappeared on March 23, 2007.

China continues to cruelly discriminate against its rural population. According to the Chinese election law, a farmer's right to vote is worth one quarter of that of an urban resident. In June 2007, the Shanxi kiln scandal was exposed by the media. Thousands of 8- [to-]13[-]year-old trafficked children had been forced to labor in illegal kilns, almost all with local government connections. Many of the children were beaten, tortured and even buried alive.

The Chinese judiciary still illegally forbids any HIV/AIDS lawsuits against government officials responsible for the tragedy. AIDS sufferers and activists have been constantly harassed by the secret police.

The Chinese government has been selling arms and weapons to Darfur and other African regions to support ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The Chinese authorities have forcibly repatriated North Korean refugees, knowing that they would be sent to labor camps or executed once back home. This significantly contravenes China's accession to the "Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees" and the "Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees."

· Please be aware that the Olympic Games will be held in a country where there are no elections, no freedom of religion, no independent courts, no independent trade unions; where demonstrations and strikes are prohibited; where torture and discrimination are supported by a sophisticated system of secret police; where the government encourages the violation of human rights and dignity, and is not willing to undertake any of its international obligations.

· Please consider whether the Olympic Games should coexist with religious persecution[,] labor camps, modern slavery, identity discrimination, secret police and crimes against humanity.

As the Beijing Olympics slogan says, we live in "one world" with "one dream." We hope that one day the Chinese people will be able to share universal human rights, democracy and peace with people from all around the world. However, we can see that the Chinese government obviously is not yet prepared to honor its promise. As a matter of fact, the preparations for the Olympics have provided the perfect excuse for the Chinese government to restrict civil liberties and suppress human rights!

We do not want China to be contained or isolated from the rest of the world. We believe that only by adhering to the principles of human rights and through open dialogue can the world community pressure the Chinese government to change. Ignoring these realities and tolerating barbaric atrocities in [the] name of the Beijing Olympics will disgrace the Olympic Charter and shake the foundations of humanity. Human rights improvement requires time, but we should at least stop China's human rights situation from deteriorating. Having the Olympics hosted in a country where human dignity is trampled on will not honor its people or the Olympic Games.

We sincerely hope that the Olympic Games will bring the values of peace, equality, freedom and justice to 1.3 billion Chinese citizens. We pray that the Olympics will be held in a free China. We must push for the 2008 Olympics to live up to the Olympic Charter[,] and we must advocate for the realization of "one world" with "one human rights dream." We believe that only an Olympic Games true to the Olympic Charter can promote China's democratic progress, world peace and development.

We firmly hold to the belief that there can be no true Olympic Games without human rights and dignity. For China and for the Olympics, human rights must be upheld!

Fini

--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: A Marked Man?

Hello,

Well, two blogs about Tibet in a week and now my internet problems have worsened severely. I am not getting emails people are sending me and I sent two emails yesterday that were never received.

My gmail has almost stopped working all together and my website access has reached entirely new levels of slow-ness. Could I have gone to bed in Shanghai and woken up in remote Africa? No, I don't think so. I am still in Shanghai in my western style apartment complex watching my pictures upload at 4 kb/s.

I read an article in the Economist a few weeks ago were some people believe that pollution costs about 4-8% GDP in China per year. Meaning that China's pollution and their complete lack to do anything about it costs hundreds of millions of dollars a year, or whatever 4-8% of total country GDP happens to equal.

I would love to see a statistic about how much percentage of GDP it costs to keep the internet running at a snails pace. I know it would be much less than the environment, and I don't for a minute feel that slow internet access is more important than China's growing environmental problems. But wouldn't it be great if someone could quantify China's strangle hold on the internet?

While it's true that the government un-blocked the BBC last week, and it's been very exciting to catch up on my football scores as the Champion's league heads in to its Semi-Finals, but there is so much more blocked and in fact the access seems to be generally slower than it was a year ago.

A friend of mine and I were discussing last night, there is no country in the world more paranoid of free thought than China. The government blocks websites to protect its people from dangerous internet content, and that may have flown 5 or 10 years ago when China was in it's infancy stage of internet communications, but these days are different. China is in fact leading the world in broadband subscriptions and internet users, don't you think these 300 or 400 million people can decide what is good and bad for themselves?

How many jobs are created by trying to police the internet? A New York Times article from 2006 indicated that there are over 100,000 people with government jobs in various ministries controlling and watching the internet. That sounds like an absurd amount of people who are essentially wasting everyone's time.

I was in the Hong Kong airport last week, returning from the Philippines for work, and I had a two hour wait for my next flight back to Shanghai. So I bought a coffee, popped open my laptop and uploaded more pictures in 90 minutes than I can upload in 2 days at home - and this is while sitting in the airport between flights in Hong Kong using their FREE broadband connection. It's good to know some countries can get things right.

If someone wanted to ask me how much of my personal income potential is sacrificed each year because of slow uploading time or having me have to sit in front of my computer and watch each FTP so that it doesn't click off; I wouldn't hesitate. I would easily say 7-10%. Meaning that slow internet access in China effects my personal business, and at least 7-10% of my working hours or efficiently is disrupted by 3rd world internet dial up speeds in what is supposed to be the Paris of the East, the new Tokyo, the next Hong Kong................or as I like to say, my slow slow Shanghai.

--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Exhibition: Chinese Turkistan

Hello,

For many of you, coming to Toronto to see my exhibition on Chinese Turkistan was simply impossible. So I have prepared a link with the images so that you can view. Enjoy.

IMAGES LINK: http://archive.ryanpyle.com/my/glbs.aspx?msid=2223&lid=15392186&e=0&p=0

Brief:
Ryan Pyle has been visiting China's western Xinjiang province regularly since 2001. But it wasn't until a recent trip in 2006 that he decided to begin to focus his camera on this mysterious and remote part of the world.

Formerly known as Chinese Turkistan, this vast expanse of deserts and mountains has seemingly always been at a crossroads between cultures and time. For centuries criminals, holy men, and traders tramped across the region; and it was out of this tradition that the silk road was established.

Surrounded on three sides by some of the highest mountain ranges in the world, with the Gobi desert blocking the fourth, Chinese Turkistan is one of the most isolated places on earth.

Ryan, in his project, has begun to look at life in this region. Drawn by its abundance of life, colorful minorities, harsh landscapes and Islam; Ryan visits mosques, local herdsmen, farming communities and former silk road trading posts trying to capture what he feels is a culture under threat from China's breakneck growth in the region.

"The culture is vanishing before my eyes", Ryan says, "each time I return something is missing: a market, an old shop full of blacksmiths, a local mosque." Traveling only with a Uygur translator, Ryan feels that the importance of capturing this culture is paramount because it is disappearing. "No other country in the world is knocking down old buildings faster to make way for new hotels, highways and airports than China. A few more years and there might not be much left at all; the whole country, from Beijing to Kashgar, is starting to look the same. A pity really, the cultural diversity being lost is not something that can be faked, or easily brought back. This cultural fabric will be lost forever."

--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Tibet: Two Misconceptions

Hello,

When trying to understand the differences in the media coverage of Tibet between Western countries and China, I think it's important that we keep one thing in mind; that is that the average Chinese and average western observer might not have any real idea about what they are talking about at all. Let me explain further.

Obviously the Chinese media is biased. They rarely report anything objectively and they constantly try to spin things to benefit their means. The recent violence in Tibet is no exception. Coverage both on television and in the papers has reached new levels of laugh-ability and is generally a disgrace to the profession in general. Now in saying that, the western coverage has been surprisingly horrid. While the big players have all done well in documenting the events, pictures have been shown in secondary newspapers across Europe and North America of riots and protests of Tibetans in India and Nepal, with captions indicating that they are taking place in Lhasa. Shocking I know. In general the western media has always been sympathetic, to a fault, of Tibet. While it is true that China has taken the territory by force and ran it with little or no recognition for its original inhabitants, fire bombing innocent Chinese business men and shop keepers is not the way out of this mess. But, let me get back to my original point about misconceptions.

The Western Misconception
There has been a rash of blog posting in the last week or so by Chinese bloggers condemning the actions of Tibetan rioters against Chinese people in Tibet. And I must agree, fire bombs being throne in to Chinese stores and incredible levels of violence against innocent Chinese citizens and small business owners are completely unacceptable. Clearly the grievances of the Tibetan people lay with the government which marginalizes them as second class citizens and forces them to repress their religious beliefs; so attacks on ordinary Chinese folks just seems a bit over the top. Which leads me to my first point, Tibetans are violent people and they are hard as nails, so to speak. There is a common misconception in the west that all Tibetan people are buddhist and they are peaceful and would never hurt anyone or anything. And while that is a fairly reliable description of monks and people over 60 years old in Tibet, clearly there are many Tibetans who are not monks and there are many who are young and passionate about their culture. Tibetan people have a strong and proud tradition as hunters, nomads and farmers, and only recently as city dwellers. It has been my experience, traveling in the region for the last seven years, that no matter what the background of tradition, Tibetans can be down right nasty both to each other and to anyone who happens to get in their way.

Violence has been as big a part of Tibetan culture as Buddhism has been over the last thousand years or so, but it is almost never discussed or debated. In fact, in the 10th century, a warlike Tibetan nation was one of the great imperial powers of Asia with their armies stretched deep in to Central Asia, Central India and Western China. More recently Tibet had always been, prior to the 1950s, been a vast lawless frontier where anything went, and there was much tribal warfare within Tibetan clans competing for farming land, live stock and even women. Nomads within Tibet have had, going back to the days of the Silk Road, always been feared for their ruthless banditry, robbing caravans of merchants crossing from Mongolia to Chinese Turkistan who accidently ventured to closely to Tibet's northern frontier.

Buddhism arrived in Tibet in the middle of the 7th century and although it spread slowly over the next few hundred years the religions spread seemed to calm the Tibetan warlike ambition, but large cliques and groups continued their ways of violence. Understanding the Tibetan forms of punishment may help us understand the levels of violence that were once deemed acceptable. In 1929, in his book THE LAND OF THE LAMAS David McDonald witnesses mutilation as a form of punishment for crimes. Men who had committed certain crimes had red hot irons thrust in to their eye sockets, and some had boiling water poured over their eyes; this was a typical punishment for murder or theft from monasteries.

While writers and journalists of our era often have experiences, and myself is included in this group, of the humorous, hospitable and trustworthy Tibetans; this is not the only side of the Tibetan people and like all of us in the west and within China, we all have our nasty sides. Especially when being continuously pressured and belittled.


The Chinese Misconception:
While the first misconception is from outsiders looking in, the second misconception is from Chinese people within China. It is safe to say that the average Chinese person has little or no idea of the history of Tibetan culture and the historically brutal treatment that the Tibetans have received at the hands of the Chinese over the last 60 years. Chinese propaganda and the re-writing of history reigns supreme and many bloggers have only vague ideas of the true history between Tibet and China, and the activities of the Cultural Revolution. While 60 years of intimidation and suppression are still no excuses to take the lives of innocent shop keepers, it can lend value to understanding just how desperate the Tibetans feel, and how serious this problem will become if not dealt with effectively.

Much of the understanding in China about Tibet comes from a "version" history I described above. Most Chinese are taught in schools that Tibetans are culture-less nomads, barbarians who have rapped and pillaged for centuries. This type of thought control allows Chinese to feel superior to their minority peoples and therefore gives them a "moral green light" - so to speak - in running the territories they live in. The comment in my last blog about Tibet is a prime example of this mis-education, whereby the current party secretary in Tibet referred to Tibetan people as children and mentioned that the Communist Party was the Tibetan people's real Buddha. A whole new level of sickness, but in his mind he is completely justified because he has been taught since he was a child that Tibetans are less than human, or at least less than a Han Chinese.

Had Chinese people had un-biased books to read from and a less-slanted post secondary education, they may understand that their government has made some unforgivable mistakes over the last 60 years in Tibet; but my hope is that all of that will be pushed to the past and a new reconciliation will begin. Now is the time, dialog is the only way to end this suppression and the negative media attention it attracts. And while this is my hope, this will most certainly not become reality.

The Chinese government will do what it does best: suppress, suppress, suppress. They will blame the Dali Lama because that's all they really know how to do. Imagine if they preformed an internal investigation into their own policy in Tibet, and then made changes?

It'll never happen, blaming is easier and a clear sign of guilt and ignorance. Economic growth and emerging global power has fueled Chinese Nationalism to ever dangerous levels, arrogance and self-ritiousness is visible throughout all levels of government and society; for too many there is little reason for change. And so minorities continue to suffer.

--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: The Policy Failure of Tibet

Hello,

As someone who has traveled dozens of times in Tibet, and who has spent countless hours sitting in monasteries and documenting life in this part of the world; I find it necessary to share my opinion on the recent brutal crackdown on Tibetan protests by the police and military in the provinces of Tibet, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan and Qinghai.

The title of this blog is: "The Policy Failure of Tibet", because since 1949 every single policy that the Chinese government has come up with has failed, and failed miserably.

The mainly Chinese view that the Tibetan people should be thankful for the wealth and prosperity that the Han Chinese have brought to the region of Tibet is largely bunk. The wealth that the Han Chinese have brought to Tibet has largely benefited not Tibetans, but themselves. They've built schools for their own children and hospitals that few locals can afford, and when Tibetans are admitted it is generally ceremonial or an act of charity. The roads and infrastructure build up has largely benefited the commodities industry which the Tibetans are shut out of, and for each train that reaches Tibet from mainland China full of tourists; another two or three trains go back in the other direction full of coal, iron ore and copper.

It's true, Tibet is incredibly strategic to China. It makes up about 15% of China's overall land mass and borders Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Burma. The region of Tibet offers a convenient buffer between the mainland and previous threat of India, and above all this the Himalayan kingdom is said to contain abundant mineral wealth. It makes very clear sense, looking back, why China wanted to incorporate it in the People's Republic of China in the 1950s. But the historical record of how China has done in the almost 60 years of "managing" Tibet offers little comfort - one can't help but feel that these recent moments of unrest have been a long long time coming. Below are a few examples of policy failure:

Almost immediately after claiming power in 1949 the People's Republic of China and its governing leaders decided to shrink the new "province" of Tibet. The leadership collectively gerrymandered the territory much like an electoral district in the United States of America. The resulting territory is half of its original size, resulting in a fact that many Tibetans now living in China live outside of Tibet proper; which is one reason why we've seen protests in many of the neighboring provinces - Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan.

Once Tibet was settled in the late 1950s and early 1960s the Chinese began an official assimilation policy, tempting Chinese from eastern China to move to Lhasa and set up business; in an grand effort to make Tibetans a minority in their own territory and therefore more stable. The policy eventually worked marvelously and Tibetans are now in fact a minority in their own territory and anyone who has visited Lhasa in the last year or two will be completely put off by the "new Tibet", while roads are paved much of the central planning has lead to Lhasa looking like every other city in China, with ugly white "bathroom" tile buildings and honking motorists on every corner. On a recent visit to Lhasa my taxi driver from the airport to the city center was a man from Hunan province. He had come to Lhasa a few years back because taxi companies paid a premium for drivers in Tibet - upwards of 150% what they can make in their home province. So he came, he drove, and he doesn't like it much. He mentioned the food had no taste, the air was too dry and that Tibetans didn't like him. Why stay I asked, to save up a little more money and then go home he replied. His tail is telling and common of most who move to Tibet from the east. Most don't like it, most come just for the money and most make no attempt to integrate in to local life, leaving a great barrier between the two cultures that exist side by side. The larger the Han population in Lhasa, the more the tensions increased. Han took care of Han and gave the best jobs to each other, leaving the mostly un-educated Tibetan population out of their plans for a new Tibet. Assimilation policies generally make the original inhabitants second class citizens in their own homes, clearly leaving them resentful and feeling helpless. This has essentially been the case since real development began in Tibet during the 1990s.

When things became too dangerous for the Dali Lama he had to flee Tibet in 1959, taking refuge in India. It was a disastrous event for the people of Tibet. While its true that the Dali Lama's life was most likely endanger it marked the beginning of a full out assault on Tibetan Buddhism. In the years that followed the Cultural Revolution shut down or destroyed some 6000 or more monasteries. A culture that had existed untouched for centuries was beset by systematic program of complete destruction. One monk I recently interviewed in the Labrang monastery told me that the Cultural Revolution was a horrible time, and he reminisces, anytime he kneeled on the ground to perform prostration's he would be wiped or beaten. Those, he said, were times best forgotten.

Since the "Opening and Reform Period" was ushered in by Deng Xiaoping in 1979, much Chinese history has been conveniently re-written or erased. The government's bureau of education has willing done it's "Big Brother Best" to conveniently forget much of the atrocity that has ravaged within the country for much of the last half century. While the disastrous policies of the Great Leap Forward and the starvation that followed are erased from history; much of Tibets history has been altered to suit the cause of government. Ask the average Chinese person in their 20s on the streets of major cities of China what they learned about Tibet during their education and they'll look dumbfounded. Stories of savages and unsophisticated barbarians come to mind, that is before the region was "liberated" by the People Liberation Army. The Chinese government has much avoided the topic of policies that were implemented in Han China during the Cultural Revolution, but they have pleaded complete amnesia to policies that were implemented in minority regions like Xinijang and Tibet during the same time frame - because they were often far far worse than anything that happened in the east. Based on my travels many monks still live with memories of the Cultural Revolution and wounds that have never been brought in to the open, or in fact have swept under the carpet as if they never happened, and that only leaves a deeper resentment. Some of which has boiled over this week.

With all the assimilation, immigration and business buildup in Tibet it is hard for Tibetans not to feel like second class citizens in their own homes. Now this has happened countless times throughout history to parts of the world that have been invaded and colonized; the British in India, Europeans in North and South America for example. But this is somewhat different in that today we live in a world of fixed territorial boundaries and issues of national security that reign supreme; a much different world that when the British governed Pakistan and India. In today's world the buzz word of stability, or the impression of stability, reigns supreme in many developing countries in the world today; and China is perhaps the perfect example. It's booming economy and upcoming Olympic games means that there is a lot to lose, and media attention is getting fierce, the impression of stability is of the utmost importance. But you can only keep people down for so long, and this quote by Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party Leader of Tibet, the highest ranking official in the territory, seem to speak volumes of the dissatisfaction by Tibetans of Han rule. Zhang says in an interview last year, "The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it is always considerate about what the children need. He later added: "The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans." What more can I say, when top government officials put their foot in their own mouths this well!

To be honest, I had hope for Tibet under Chinese rule up until a few weeks ago. China's current president Hu Jinatao was the Party Leader of Tibet from 1988 and had experienced, and was generally responsible for the, crack down in 1989. My hope was that he had learned his lessons and might have been able to avoid similar situations, but it's clear that the current party chief is stuck in the 1960s mentality of governing Tibet. The future looks bleak indeed: wrong thinking ministers, trigger happy soldiers and a complete blockade against independent observers and journalists are all steps in the wrong direction. When will China learn that this behavior just doesn't fly when you view yourself as an emerging superpower? Maybe never. Will further gaps in stability plague China in its minority hinterlands? Only time will tell. But my guess is this will be the most political Olympics on record and China will weather each storm with heavy-handed crackdowns, prompting further resentment. And so the vicious circle continues.


--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Looking Back...........Toronto

Hello,

I've been wanting to write this blog for about a week now, but something has always come up and postponed it; well not today.

I wanted a moment to reflect on my most recent trip back to Toronto. I had originally planned the trip back to Toronto for my brothers wedding and a bit of time with family. But that soon became just the anchor to what was an intense week of photography and lecturing.

First off, having stayed in touch with my former Chinese Politics professor at the University of Toronto, I was invited back to the university in late February to give two lectures to 2nd and 3rd year undergrad classes studying contemporary Chinese Politics. I was really pleased to have had this opportunity and I embraced it.

I prepared a two hour lecture on some of the negative impacts of rapid Chinese economic growth, using a basic model that there are essentially two China's; the urban centers and the countryside - and the gap between them widens further each year. Supporting this main argument I touched on local corruption, environmental destruction, land rights, poverty, health care and education. I intertwined a lot of facts and statistics with a lot of personal stories about hair raising experiences doing journalism work in China - it was great fun. It was also the first time I have ever stood up and talked for 2 hours, but once I got cracking along it was easy enough. The class was well received and I know many of the students enjoyed a change of pace from the regular lectures delivered by the professors. I've since been invited back to lecture again next year, once my final plans are formalized for my next trip to Toronto.

Hopefully some of the students have signed on to the blog and are keeping watch of all the turmoil that has been happening recently. But I'll save those details for another blog - some time soon.

So, the lecturing went well and it is absolutely something I would like to do in the future; not just at the University of Toronto but at other institutions as well. I feel that my day to day life in China, and my photojournalism work in the country offers me a unique perspective that I want to share with as many people as possible. Obviously I would love to write a book about some of these issues some day, but alas finding the time is just not possible at the moment.

The second portion of the trip back to Toronto involved my very first photography exhibition. The topic was Chinese Turkistan, also known as the province of Xinjiang province in northwestern China. I have spent a significant amount of time in the last two years traveling in Xinjiang, attempting to document life and culture - I felt this first stage of the project was a success. I called the show Chinese Turkistan because I wanted the imagery to remind people of the special Silk Road history and wealth of culture that exists in this very special region of China. I felt the show was well attended and very well received and I am hoping to continue on with another show next year in 2009. The only question that remains is the venue, whether we will be in Toronto again or perhaps London, UK. Hopefully I'll know in the next few months.

The last stop of my trip back to Toronto was to be the best man at my brothers wedding. Now, I don't talk much about my personal life on this blog, and it's safe to assume that won't change anytime soon, but it was great to be back and catch up with a lot of family and friends that I hadn't seen in ages. When you live a long way away, going back and having everyone together for one special night is a great thing. A true pleasure.

More soon.

--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Last Call: Exhibition - Chinese Turkistan by Ryan Pyle

Hello,

Well, the days have flown by and the gallery show is tomorrow, THURSDAY FEBRUARY 28TH. As you know I have been living in Shanghai, China for the last five years and during that time I've been working on a photography project about Xinjiang, a Muslim region in the Northwest of China. It's a black and white art photography exhibition about the life and culture of this remote region. Anyways, if you are in and around Toronto on Feb. 28th then it would be great if you could drop by. Details are below:

LINK: http://www.elevatorworkshops.com/rpyle.shtml

Thursday February 28th 2008
6pm Until 9pm

ELEVATOR STUDIO
42 Industrial St.
Toronto, ON M4G 1Y9
416.406.3131
888.470.7555
info@elevatorworkshops.com

--
Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Friday, February 15, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: My Witopia

Regular readers will know how much I despise the Great Fire Wall of China. That's right, internet access in China is pathetic. Slow download, slow uploading and nearly impossible to enjoy YouTube or even my personal favorite - ESPN.com. To be brutally honest, I don't even care about the censoring of websites and the blocking of information. What I care about most is having my pictures seen by people, and that involves me getting them out of China. In basic terms this Great Fire Wall of China is just bad for business.

But alas, I have a solution - albeit not a complete solution.

I have recently acquired a Virtual Private Network through a company named WiTopia. (http://www.witopia.net/). I am not too technical, but apparently this VPN allows me to avoid the fire wall in China and enjoy freer and faster uploading and downloading. The VPN was USD40 per year, a massive investment of USD3.33 per month.

I've been using the service for about one month now and I can tell you all by experience, it is better - but it is still not great.

What do I mean? Well, I can access all blocked websites like the BBC, TIME, Human Rights Watch and a host of others. But the bandwidth is still crawling along at a regular snails pace.

Where I do find value in this service is in the Uploading or when I FTP my images out of China. I find I can get my pictures out 2 or even 3 times faster than when I am not using the VPN. It's still a lot slower than the US and Europe, but it is an early solution and it has eased some of my headache.

So when will I find a complete solution to my internet troubles? Perhaps when the PARTY ends it's paranoia about freedom of information, and when the state run monopoly of China Telecom ceases to exist and consumers have the right to choose between services based on attributes like stability and speed. But alas, that is a long long long time away.

Just wanted to share that with anyone out there who is suffering from a similar fate.

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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Friday, February 01, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: Land & Property

Hello,

Anticipating that anyone out there might be reading, and in an effort to write a blog at least twice a month, I've decided that the 1st and the 15th of every month made solid initial writing dates. I honestly don't know how people blog every day!

You'll notice that this blog wasn't published until Feb.11, but at least I started writing it on Feb.1st. Still a weak effort I know.

Today I would like to walk through two stories I recently shot regarding land and property rights. One was in a rural region of the country and the other was in a suburb of Shanghai.

1) The Shanghai Story:
Many of you might have seen the New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/world/asia/27shanghai.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=asia) on China's urban middle class organizing themselves against the government over the extension of the ultra high speed Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) Train. The article was written by a good friend and colleague of mine, Howard W. French. His story used first person accounts of how China's emerging middle class feel about their own property, and also how they feel about new infrastructure projects near there homes - and how that may effect their property value; a series of thoughts and calculations that just didn't exist 15 years ago. The country is indeed changing fast.

First some background. The Shanghai government announced that they would like to extend the 430 km/hr MagLev train from Shanghai to Hangzhou, a boom town specializing in high tech products and internet businesses. The plans call for the train to travel through a densely populated suburb of Shanghai, named Minghang district.

Residents of Minghang are mostly well educated working professionals who commute back and forth to the Shanghai city center, or to nearby industrial parks, for work. Many of the men and women I met during my two days in the area were university educated, mainly engineers. These working professionals are all new home owners and they take a lot of pride in the fact that they've been able to purchase a home in the greater Shanghai area. News of a 430 km/hr MagLev track passing some 100 meters from their residential complex did not generate the excitement the Shanghai government was looking for.

So, instead of "taking it" quietly, as was much the norm in the past, our highly educated and highly motivated working professionals have decided to organize and protest. Protests and public gathering that are not sanctioned by the government are, of course, illegal. And protest they did. A protest in People's Square in downtown Shanghai on the day that Gordon Brown was visiting. Websites, blogs, SMS's circulating their district, signed petitions presented to local government, daily meetings at night to discuss progress on talks with the government, etc, etc.

The backlash from the government at first was typical, plain clothes thugs dispersed throughout the residential complex, intimidating those attending meetings; one house arrest; one man was beaten and then it stopped and civility took over. Dialog took the place of the security forces trying to scare people. The shift was welcomed by most.

It was an interesting process to watch as a journalist, the residents of the complex were very keen to have the foreign media there; and this is where my doubts began to set in. Protesters had three main complaints, one is health related, the other is noise and the last was decreased property value.

Now, having a 430 km/hr train speed past your house will decrease property value; and the health concerns (which I don't fully comprehend) seemed a bit much. The noise issue seemed frivolous. To speak plainly, this was all about money, it was the property value that struck a cord with these folks. Noise is negligible since most of Shanghai's streets are a complete nightmare at all times of day - one could hardly imagine hearing the MagLev train speed past over the street noise with include taxi's and buses honking horns at all hours of the day.

So with property value as the key issue it was easy to motivate other residents, several thousands in fact who ended up signing petitions and protesting the train. But in talking with many of the residents and breaking down their arguments and understanding their motives, I feel mostly they just saw this as their chance for a government handout, a one off payment to compensate these folks for putting a high speed train next to their homes. It wouldn't be the first time the government has paid off people to keep them quiet, and my guess is the MagLev train is important enough that they'll most likely pay these residents off as well. Therefore setting a president that protesting and involving the foreign media works. The next case should be even more interesting.


2) The Countryside Story:
This story hasn't been published yet so I can go too much in to detail about locations and such, but it's typical of much of what is happening in the countryside these days.

A small inlet of local farmers have lived on their land for 3 and 4 generations in most cases. They were farmers and that was all they knew. Late last year the government decided that those farmers were sitting on some prime land, as the area around them was pristine bamboo forests. Local officials could smell tourist dollars, and they acted quick.

Initial notices were sent to farmers telling them that their land was being confiscated, and that they would be compensated accordingly. The only problem was, as always, the compensation was a fraction of what the land was worth, and more importantly what it meant to the farmers. No the Chinese government owns the land, this true. There is no private land ownership in Rural China. But it has been agreed upon that some type of subsidy must be made to residents for loss of future income; and this is often the cause of many problems.

Now I may be biased about this, but if you take someone's land away and they have no other skills, and almost no education then fair compensation must be made. But without an independent legal system there is really no incentive for the local government officials to treat farmers humanly.

To make a long story short the government eventually decided that enough was enough and brought in the bulldozers one day and kicked all the people (using force) out of their homes and then demolished their homes with all their belongings and furniture in their houses. They had nothing left but the clothes on their backs. The next day when they returned to the scene and tried to dig through their homes to salvage anything they could, they were beaten and arrested.


3) Brief Summary:

Two different stories about land and property rights. Two very different tactics used by residents and government officials. Where the Shanghai residents still await an official response regarding the MagLev, the farmers had their fate sealed with truly unbelievable cruelty. I don't have any grand response or solution to this problem. The provinces in China, and they're leaders have always had great autonomy from the central government in Beijing, in many cases they also control the legal system and banks as well. Surely, if this country (China) is to develop the way Beijing thinks it should, cases like the one in this farming community need to be stopped and corrupt officials need to be punished and made an example of; but as long as double digit growth continues to race head with no end in site, who cares about the rule of law, or the rights of Chinese people? Not the government.

China is going to have to face a stiff reality check sometime soon. And that day will be a nasty one indeed. I hope the country can change and can create an independent rule of law and respect it's people and take the clamps off the media. Voting may speed this process up, but in my mind it's not completely necessary.


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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Ryan Pyle Blog: My Sorry Sorry Blog

Hello,

I can't even imagine what happened, it just totally slipped my mind.

Today I found the link for my blog and noticed that my last blog entry was June 29 2007. That is really and truly pathetic, and for anyone out there who may actually read my blog, I am sorry for my tardy behavior.

It's January 2008, and it's a month for resolutions. And while things like getting to the gym more regularly and eating healthier are high on my agenda, blogging regularly is - believe it or not - at the top on my agenda.

The reasons why blogging takes top spot are two fold. Firstly, I am interested in creating a space for dialog about my work and my experiences in China. Second, I am interested in keeping a type of diary of my life and work in China; and what better way to do that then share my experiences with all of you.

Today is January 17th, my goal is to have regular monthly blogs - weekly might be a bit too ambitious. I'm going to try to discuss projects I am working on and experiences that I have during them. I hope, if there is anyone left who still subscribes, that the new format and rejuvenated effort, will be an enjoyable read for anyone interested in China and photojournalism.

All comments and suggestions are more than welcome and for those who commented in the past, you'll know that I always reply and encourage dialog.

All the best in 2008.

--
Cheers,

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