The land of the photo opportunity
Impressions of China - Part 2
I think one of the things I will remember most about China is how much of Chinese leisure time seemed to be focused on taking the perfect cute photo. Obviously this is somewhat generational, with mostly young people partaking, but this seems to be about more than just coming across a perfect place to take a selfie in, and whole businesses seem to have been built to cater for this.
Out and About
One of the big photo opportunities in the Dali region were a few wheat fields that were dotted around the area. Now I grew up in a village surrounded by fairly big fields (fairly big for German standards at least) of different grains, and consequently I don’t consider a wheat field that exotic. Here, however, masses of people were visiting these fields in order to… be photographed while standing in them.
I’m not saying it didn’t look pretty, the ‘beards’ swaying int he wind, a lovely green golden colour (and by the length of the beards I would not be surprised if it was actually a barley field and not a wheat field at all… told you, I grew up in the “granary of Hesse”), making a perfect back- and fore-ground for pictures. But for me, randomly pretty is all it was. Having an accessible wheat field was a major draw to one of the villages we went to, as it brought in lots of tourists. I was mainly feeling sorry for the farmers having people traipsing all over their fields, but we speculated that this might actually have been located there just for the purpose of providing these photo opps, rather than to actually be harvested by the town. I’m not sure whether this is actually true, but it would make a lot of sense, because it did bring in a lot of people, some travelling with lights and tripod for their cameras, others simply using their phones.
Dressing up
Once I was on my tour of China, it became clear that one of the reasons Chinese couples come to their historical sites is to take pictures in traditional dress. Specifically these are photos you take just before your wedding as wedding pictures, as on the day you won’t have the time, plus the outfits are complicated and heavy to wear.
It was magical to spot these couples, dressed up in those wonderful red clothes, all over the place, sometimes getting ready to pose, sometimes just crossing the road off to their next location.
I think these pre-wedding photos have a long tradition, but we also spotted lots of people dressing up in all sorts of different Chinese ethnic traditional wear in order to take photographs. And there were actual shops where you could rent the clothes and also book hair and make-up sessions.
Standing Out
Turns out if you travel in China as a Westerner, you might become part of the photo opportunity. Especially if you are white and blonde. I’m not blonde at the moment, but was travelling with women who were, and it was not unusual for people to ask whether they could take pictures with you. Sometimes they asked this in mandarin, which wasn’t always helpful, and I had one travel companion who got really upset, because she really didn’t want to pose with a random Chinese woman on top of the Li River Cruise boat, she just wanted to enjoy the view. Difficult to explain if you don’t speak the language. But usually people were really friendly.
At one point in Dali we came across a youth group, where some of the kids delighted in trying their English out on us and asking for photos. It felt a bit like being a celebrity, really!
Posing
One of my stops, my very last one, actually, was the Shanghai Disneyland Resort, which was fabulously big, allowed me to explore some areas and attractions that can’t be found anywhere else in the world (for now at least), and was a real bucket list item for me. Again, I’m planning to post about this (and my visit to Universal Studios in Beijing) at some point.
However, at this point the apparent obsession for posing for photographs in this country became a bit annoying. I mean, I get that you might want to have a picture of yourself with the castle or a favourite character. Some pictures to commemorate a special day in a special place.
Sure.
But there were people there that must have only come for taking photographs, as in, they had actual photographers with them and posing seemed to be all they did. They weren’t official Disney photographers, although I’m sure I also saw some of them. So did the photographers come with the people? Did they come to the parks on their own and have a few slots for people to book? I’ll probably never know, but there were a lot of people with their personal photographers in tow.
Most of all in the Alice in Wonderland walk-through. A number of linked small garden type areas that people can wander through and wonder at, this must be enchanting, if you could actually explore it without constantly running into people posing for pictures with photographers. And I mean ALL THE TIME. You couldn’t take more than five steps before stumbling over somebody, often literally, because the photographers would crouch on the ground for the perfectly angled shot. There is a little hedge maze at the end that you search for the tea party, and I think there was a photographer, with model, around every turn I came round. And in most of those photographs, you won’t even be able to see that they were taken in a theme park. They were just there for the background of the hedge. At least as far as I could see.
What Else
As I am back in the UK now, some sort of normal life has resumed. I’ve been doing some travelling a bit closer to home, helping out with a 5 year old’s pirate birthday party in Cornwall, leading a workshop in Durham, discussing a possible new venture with an old friend, and tidying up enough so I can welcome guests. I am still working through the China trip, I haven’t downloaded all my pictures yet nor have I finished the journal type notebook I kept, but in a way this helps keep the trip alive a little longer. I have just booked a workshop to learn more bracelet knotting/braiding techniques, as that was one of the favourite things I did while out. (Yes, I will post about all the things I made at some point).
I have also taken a little trip into Stafford to check out the new location of Unit Twelve, a small gallery and workshop space, that I have done a few workshops previously, and their new space looks lush! I can’t wait for the next workshop there (which we already booked). While there, we did a small art making activity, inspired by Ali Ferguson, the inaugural ‘in the window’ artist.
Yes, it used to be part of a farm. The new location is definitely worth checking out!