Archive for Category: "On The Street"
Converting to Christianity in Rural China
The majority of rural Chinese practice traditional folk religion, which incorporates deities, spirits, and ancestor worship. But more and more rural Chinese are converting to Christianity, with its own Chinese characteristics.
Shanghai’s Drag Queens Take the Stage
The petite drag queen strutted to the middle of the floor in a pin-straight pink wig, a strapless wedding gown and a pair of elbow-length white gloves. She grabbed a microphone and belted out a Chinese pop song in honor of Father’s Day as middle-aged men in the audience catcalled and threw 100 RMB ($15) notes at her.
Half the Sky: A Female Artist in China
Monika Lin has made a name for herself on Moganshan Shanghai art scene with contemporary work that explores the social problems in modern society. Despite government censorship of critical artistic expression, the 33-year-old Chinese-Latino American has lived and worked in China where many of her exhibits have created awareness of gender inequality.
Obesity in the Middle Kingdom
McDonald’s has been a fixture of China’s fast-food scene since 1990. Like many of its competitors, the burger chain has adapted some items to local tastes, like chicken McWings with spicy garlic sauce. But its flagship sandwich, the Big Mac, tastes the same in Beijing as it does in Boston, down to the two meat patties, special sauce and sesame seed bun.
What Do You Think of America?
According to the 2010 National Population Census of China, 19.3 percent of the world’s population are Chinese citizens. The relationship between the U.S. and China has become increasingly important. So what do China’s approximately 1.4 billion people think about the U.S. and Americans?
Kingdom of Electric Bicycles
In the bike parking lot of Zhang Shan Park Subway Station in Shanghai, the electronic bikes outnumber the regular bikes. There are dozens of them, ranging from brand new and fashionable Giant bikes to old, rusted bikes. No matter their condition, they are a growing trend in China’s changing bike culture.
The Women of Xiejiaqiao
In a garden along a narrow village road, Zhang Fie Feng plucked weeds amid budding trees while her 5-year-old granddaughter marched down the rows, ignoring her grandmother’s requests to collect discarded dandelions. Zhang, 56, is one of the women of Xiejiaqiao, a village where many women’s lives were defined by the social and economic environment in which they grew up.
The People of the Bund
Located on the western bank of the Huangpu River, Shanghai’s stately old promenade, the Bund, has long marked the cosmopolitan crossroads of China. Beginning in the 19th century, its elegant European-style façades came to symbolize the heights of colonial style and wealth after the Western powers forced China to open its doors to trade and made Shanghai into a booming commercial capital.
Villagers Line Up for Visit from Township Doctors
In the mountain village of Xiejiaqiao, a line snakes through the center of the downtown crossroads as residents line up for an annual health screening given by doctors from a nearby town. By 10 a.m. on June 15, more than 400 people—half of the village population—have visited the clinic. As the line continues to grow, people begin to push others out of queue to secure a spot away from the rain.
Village Buzz: A Man and His Bees
Ding Xijiu sits in his small kitchen, gazing out a window facing the street where seven wooden boxes line the small area in front of his house. Hundreds of bees quietly fly in and out of the boxes, carrying pollen down from the yellow cole flowers that dot the mountains around Xiejiaqiao, a village near Hangzhou.