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
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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.

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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: 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

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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 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.

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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: 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.

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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: 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.

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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

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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: 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.

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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 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

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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: 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.

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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: 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
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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:

___________________________________________
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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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Ami Vitale : Video Photography w/ Nikon D300S

Hello.

Over the years I've had a lot of friends, and even some clients, ask me when I was going to make the switch to video. I usually replied with a stubborn "NEVER"!

But this Recent Video shot by Ami Vitale, an accomplished stills photographer, using the new Nikon DSLR D300S has left me wondering if there can really be a future for someone like me in the video world.

Let me first say that the video is stunning. Ami is a wonderful image maker and her composition and work with the video function are lovely. The Nikon D300S seems to be very capable of producing some very high quality video, whether it is better than the 5D MII is up to someone else to judge. I've had my MII's for more than half a year now and I've never even attempted to use the video function, which leads me to wonder...

Obviously Ami is sponsored by Nikon and they put up some big money to produce this 5m22s video. Not only did Ami most likely spend a few weeks shooting in India, some of the video was staged and the content that Ami produced was masterfully edited. Without being an expert in video, I can't even begin to imagine how many hours all that content took to review, edit and sync to music; can any videographers leave comments with just a hint or how long that might take, assuming you are already a master with software like Final Cut?

The point is that it is true, highly motivated, highly skilled photographers can make great video when they have the resources behind them and people to assist; especially for the very timely editing process. But is video really the future of our industry? Are magazines printed on paper really doomed?

While I don't really know the answers to any of the questions I've posed in this blog, all I can say is that I'm happily moving in the opposite direction. I'm shooting more film than ever before and producing more Black and White fine art and I have 3 gallery shows lined up for next year already. I think there is still a lot of power and emotion in the still image; and while the masters who came before us documented much, I still think there is a place for me to carve out a unique niche for myself.

And while I stand strongly behind my personal opinion, please don't assume that I take anything away from the wonderful video that Ami shot. She produced a video that was visually stunning; a cracking effort and a clear example of what is possible with resources at hand.

LINK to Ami's Video

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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 Presidents Son

Hello.

Some blogs make me giggle, others can bring tears to my eyes. This one falls somewhere in the middle. I just wanted to write a bit about how similar China's version of paternal capitalism is with that of the United States. In a BBC article earlier this week it was reported that Hu Jintao's son runs a company that makes airport security scanners. His company is knee-deep in Africa; and Namibia recently launched a bribery case against his firm.

When reading this I instantly thought of George Bush Senior and his son. George Bush Junior got in all kinds of trouble as a private business man in Texas before his father had lost his patience bailing him out of trouble and decided to help engineer his political career; and the rest is history.

But Hu Jintao's case is a little bit different. It is common knowledge in China that all the big political bosses in the Communist Party have children who are surprisingly capable business men and women; go figure. It seems that most of the top leaders have sons who run massive investment companies, property companies or in some cases even state-run energy companies. But the message that this sends to people in China does much more damage than the small bribery cases in Africa.

You see, China is desperately trying to clean itself up. Corruption is blatant and everywhere, and while top leaders in Beijing have cleaned themselves up considerably, they've just simply passed the buck (literally) on to their very powerful children; who oddly enough don't have any interest in politics as long as business is good. The message this sends to small county governors in the Chinese countryside is that if the big guys up top can get their cake and eat it to, then I'm going to do the same. And of course "the people" suffer.

Capitalism, or state run capitalism, is a killer without independent checks and balances, and China likes the balances tipped just the way they are. So is China's push to stamp out corruption real? Sure, but it is selective at best and corrupt at worse.

Last year during the Olympics I was losing my mind waiting in line ups at airports around China as bags were x-rayed after they were collected from the baggage claim, as an extra security measure. At least now I know why there were twice as many xray machines in the airports then most would need. You gotta spread the wealth. The BBC story is below.
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Copywrite BBC
China firm in Namibia bribe claim

Nuctech is a leading supplier of airport security scanners. Namibia is investigating allegations of bribery over a government contract with a Chinese state-owned firm that has links to President Hu Jintao's son.

Namibia's anti-corruption commission said it would like to question Hu Haifeng, but that he was not a suspect. Hu Haifeng was president of the firm, Nuctech, until last year.

Nuctech is suspected of bribing a Namibian consultancy in connection with a $56m (£34m) deal to supply scanners to Namibia's ports and airports. The co-owners of consultancy Teko Trading, Teckla Lameck and Kongo Mokaxwa, and Nuctech's Africa representative Yang Fan, were arrested last week and are still in custody. Teko Trading is alleged to have received $13.2m from Nuctech.

The Chinese firm is a global leader in X-ray scanners and security devices. Hu Haifeng, 38, was president of the firm until last year when he was promoted to a post with Tsinghua Holdings, the group that controls Nuctech and a number of other companies.

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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: MeiliXue Mountain Trek on Resolve

Hello.

A few months back I completed a grueling trek around a holy mountain in Southeastern Tibet. The work is unpublished which is why I've only left a teaser image from the series. No slide show at the moment. But a few week back this blog was published on the Livebooks Resolve Blog. I am now a regular contributor to the Livebooks Resolve Blog and I'll try to make everyone aware of new postings. Read the blog below.
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A Short Walk in to Tibet
By: Ryan Pyle

For years I’ve been hiking in China, and just about anytime I can squeeze out a few free days I jump on a plane to Sichuan or Yunnan province, in Southwest China, for a bit of nature. I always shoot during my trips and have grown adept at both executing these treks and managing to come back with images that have the potential to become a published story. In other words I’m well versed in extreme altitude, extreme weather, and cameras.

So it was with utter delight that I took an assignment in June to document the religious mountain of Meilixue in Southeastern Tibet. The “holy mountain” is scared to Tibetan Buddhists and is home to a kora or “holy trek” that is ranked China’s most difficult trek by the China Mountaineering Association. Pilgrims make the trek around the holy mountain, a complete circumnavigation, and the process is said to cleanse the soul. Sitting in my apartment in Shanghai, it was difficult to contemplate a ten-day, 300-kilometer trek through Tibet. A series of questions began running through my mind: How was I supposed to walk 12 hours a day and still make strong images? Was there a road? Was there mobile phone access? Was there electricity?

My first decision was to shoot film -- digital just wasn't going to cut it for this trip. Not only would electricity be scarce, but extreme temperature fluctuations would further drain the batteries and potentially just be too tough for my Canon 5D MII’s. So I dusted off my Canon 1Ns and bought 200 rolls of Fuji Provia. Luckily I already had all the gear, clothes, and footwear needed to attempt such a journey, so I didn’t have to scramble at the last minute. Excitement was beginning to sink in.

A few days later, fear began to sink in, too. When I began my research in earnest, I was disturbed by how little information existed about this trek, including crucial details: the length of the trek, it’s difficulty, and possible villages along the route. I was able to dig up two resources: a China Trekking site compiled by a person who had obviously never trekked in his/her entire life and a travel website built by two German hikers who had done the trek about 3-4 years earlier.

The Germans had charted the kora (pilgrimage) as being somewhere in the region of 300 km (185 miles), meaning that I needed to cover roughly 15 to 20 miles a day to complete the trek in a reasonable amount of time. That meant I probably needed to sleep in a tent every night, cook my own food, walk for eight-to-ten hours a day -- at altitude -- while stopping as often as possible to document and record the journey. This was starting to sound like mission impossible. Did I mention that each day was a vertical assent or descent? And that there are three passes over 4,500 meters (15,000 feet)?

With gear sorted, and research done, I still needed to find a local guide. You never go wondering into Tibet without a Tibetan. And you never go climbing around on a mountain without someone who has been on that mountain since they were ten years old. In this part of the world, people die on the mountains -- the only safety you can count on is experience. Finding a guide proved to be difficult, and in the end I decided that I would find the right person in the village where I would start my journey. That was a potentially risky move, but like everywhere in the world, you can usually make things happen once you are on the ground. Half the time –- no matter how well organized you are –- everything changes once you are on location anyways.

My flight to Zhongdian, now named Shangri-la, was easy enough. Zhongdian is the first town on the Tibetan plateau in China’s Southwestern Yunnan province. I decided to fly in and rest there for two days; at 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) it would be an ideal place to acclimatize before making more aggressive moves into the mountains. Taking the time to acclimatize in this part of the world is as essential as remembering to bring film for your camera. Without spending the first day or two resting, you are setting yourself up for attitude sickness and possibly worse.

From there, getting to the mountains was easy enough and as the initial adrenaline rush gave way to reality, the trek revealed itself to be the most visually beautiful, emotionally rewarding, and physically and mentally challenging experience of my life. And all that was crammed into just nine days.

Without giving away too of a story that is not yet published, I can say that the Germans were wrong in their calculations -- the trek is around 400km (250 miles), when taking into account the switch backs and detours. That made for about thirty miles a day. My writing partner and I completed the journey in nine days and suffered some of the most extreme weather conditions I’ve witnessed in my decade of traveling in the region. We were rained on, snowed on, hailed on. On the last day, it was 25C (77F) when we woke up and -20C (-4F) just seven hours later, at 4,900 meters, with wind strong enough to knock you off your feet. I lost about twenty pounds in the process and gained a completely new respect for our Tibetan guides who floated effortlessly over high passes and across windy plateaus.

As far as the gear was concerned, the Northface tent, sleeping bags and jackets performed wonderfully, especially with violent temperature fluctuations. The Canon 1Ns held up beautifully in rain, snow, and sleet. The Fuji Provia was, as always, the right color film for the job. And after walking up and down mountains for ten hours a day in the remote Himalaya’s, I feel as though I could face down Michael Phelps, on dry land at least.

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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: Final Reminder, Gallery Exhibition "Chinese Turkistan"

Hello,

Bare with me, just a final reminder that my Chinese Turkistan show will run tomorrow. The show will be held at the newly renovated Dylan Ellis Gallery (DEG)

Dylan Ellis Gallery
42 Industrial Street,
Toronto, ON M4G 1Y9
Hours: M-f 9am to 5pm;
Sat. noon - 5pm, Sun. by Appointment
416.406.3131

The opening time on Thursday night is 630pm, that's when I'll hold a Q&A and that will be followed by a reception from 7pm to 9pm. I'll also be at the gallery after the show on Friday August 7th and Saturday August 8th in case anyone would like to stop by and discuss the project. I'll also make myself available prior to the show should anyone be interested in learning more about the region of Chinese Turkistan and my inspiration behind the project. With the recent news of unrest in Urumqi I feel that it is really time to begin looking more closely at Xinjiang, and begin a serious dialog about the repercussions of such unrest. It's often considered a forgotten part of the world, but the people there are beginning to rise up and are very capable of challenging government authority.

In my eyes the project is timely and beginning to come together. I hope you'll have a chance to attend the show. The work will stay on display at the DEG for 2 months after August 6th. I hope there is a chance to meet up with each and every one of you at some stage. Follow the gallery website link above to view my bio and project summary as well as some of the images that will be displayed at the show.

I hope if you are in Toronto you'll have a chance to stop by.

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