Website review: WorldChanging: The Chinese Far West
laodan discovered this in China
•3 reviews since May 15, 2008
china, africa
•worldchanging.com/archives/008035.html
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laodan discovered 8 weeks ago- The Chinese Far West in WorldChanging by Regine Debatty
Just spent 3 days in Rome to check out FotoGrafia, the 7th edition of international festival of photography which runs until May 25th in several venues throughout the city. ... one of the photo series was so striking (and so far away from what you and i would regard as "normality"), i spent the rest of my stay in the Italian capital obsessing about it. Chinese Wild West, a collaboration between photographer Paolo Woods and journalist Serge Michel, follows China's industrial neo-colonialism in African lands. For the 500.000 Chinese who have emigrated to the 'dark continent' there is the promise of a 21st century Wild West. Some have struck gold and run large conglomerates that span whole regions of Africa, others are still selling their cheap goods on the burning hot roadsides of the poorest countries in the world. For the Africans, the arrival of the Chinese is perhaps the most important event of the forty years of independence. The Chinese do not look like the former colonialists. They build roads, dams and hospitals and win over the people. They speak neither of democracy nor transparency and they win over the dictators. Woods and Michel conclude their presentation of the work with these words: These are rare images: Beijing wants to keep a low profile for its conquest. But though it remains largely unexposed these photographs portray a phenomenon, a new dimension of globalization, that threatens to leave the West behind. The Chinese Far West Complete collection of photographs
The West came centuries ago. It captured Africans and chained them into slavery. As a result African societies were totally destabilized and so Europeans later tried to impose their own political structures in African lands. But this only precipitated the destruction of African ancestral societies while Africans at best only assimilated sketchy patches of Western culture. Europeans were thus responsible for the societal collapse of Africa and the confusion that resulted among Africans. Needing more and more resources the Chinese started to invest in Africa after the year 2000 and within the short time span since then African countries are experiencing fast economic growth... Woods and Michel photographed the visual reality of the Chinese presence in Africa and their words say all there is to say "For the Africans, the arrival of the Chinese is perhaps the most important event of the forty years of independence. The Chinese do not look like the former colonialists. They build roads, dams and hospitals and win over the people. They speak neither of democracy nor transparency and they win over the dictators." I suppose that Eurocentrics will shout loud against what they see as a new form of colonialism that is irrespectful of democracy. But the only thing that matters is the perception of the Africans themselves. Woods and Michel's words leave no place for doubt...
- The Chinese Far West in WorldChanging by Regine Debatty
- atongchan rated 5 weeks ago
- For the 500.000 Chinese who have emigrated to the 'dark continent' there is the promise of a 21st century Wild West. Some have struck gold and run large conglomerates that span whole regions of Africa, others are still selling their cheap goods on the burning hot roadsides of the poorest countries in the world. For the Africans, the arrival of the Chinese is perhaps the most important event of the forty years of independence. The Chinese do not look like the former colonialists. They build roads, dams and hospitals and win over the people. They speak neither of democracy nor transparency and they win over the dictators.
- gavinski rated 7 weeks ago
- I cannot actually see these images of 'the Chinese Far West'. The government in its wisdom seems to be blocking them. They sound fascinating though. Recently about 500,000 Chinese have emigrated to Africa, and are having a revolutionary effect on the African economy. "For the Africans, the arrival of the Chinese is perhaps the most important event of the forty years of independence. The Chinese do not look like the former colonialists. They build roads, dams and hospitals and win over the people. They speak neither of democracy nor transparency and they win over the dictators." "Peng Shu Lin is leaving tonight to go and work in Nigeria. He is 36. He has spent more than half of his life melting plastic in a state factory in Mianyang, his hometown in the center of China. His 90$ monthly salary is simply not enough anymore to live on and help his ageing parents. In Nigeria he will work in one of the 40 factories of a Honk Kong businessman, for a 550$ salary plus room and board. Peng Shu Lin has never left his Sichuan province, never taken a plane and never seen a black man, except on television. All he is taking to Africa is in the small sport bag next to him. He thinks that when he returns to China, in two or three years, he will have saved something like 15.000$, enough to get married and open an Internet café in his town." Yet another great stumble from the wonderful pages of Loadan , a must-see for anyone interested in Globalisation.
