Photography from Xitek
Xitek.com is a Chinese site which takes photography very seriously and showcases some of its members’ work. I’ve selected a sample of the more notable galleries currently online.
– 《矿工写真》: A collection of pictures of Chinese miners as a memorial to those lost in the Henan mining distaster.
– 粤西禁地 – 汉森病康复村: Photos from a leprosy recovery village in Guongdong province.
– 《大山之子》: 岜沙 is a village near Guizhou populated with people of the 苗 minority group.
– 香格里拉: This is mainly a bunch of maps, but I imagine they could be very useful if you’re planning a trip to Tibet and can read Chinese.
– 《中国模特之星》: Chinese model competition. The photographer seems to favor #3, at least in the beginning. I can’t say I blame him. (Don’t miss the links at the bottom of the page. There are nine pages in all.)
– 我的长城行: Ahhh, the Great Wall… forever photogenic. (Two pages)
– 行行色色之锦绣中华: This is kind of cool — a collection of links to photography posted in the forum, organized by geographic region, and complete with clickable map. (Warning: some of the albums linked to are not so hot.)
Are those real?
cool. this is one of my most favorite sites.
thanks for sharing
The miner pics are shocking.I’ve seen plenty of those before,but everytime I see them I got shocked.They are touching you to the deepest,yet make you feel so sad.Many have argued that the government was to blame for the uncommon frequency of such disasters.But I’d say it’s the investment driven pattern of economic growth has led to so many heartbreaking adversities.We’re gluttonizing the natural resources,be those miners the sacrifice.
Mikez:
I also agree with you about the heartfelt plight of the miners. If we assume that you are correct about the root cause of the problem, the gluttonizing of the natural resources through investment driven economic development, what would you recommend as the solution: the articial manmade bullet to the head of each miner or the natural, organic method of letting them slowly starve to death.
JFS,
That would never be the solution.Mainland China has become world’s second largest energy consumer since year 2003,consuming some 6 million barrels of oil per day,right after the US.(more than 20 million per day in 2004)But China’s effective use of energy has a long long way to go.The fact is,China needs more resources to maintain its soaring economy.As the number one source of energy in China,coal then becomes hot in the market.Those mine owners would put their own interests first over the precious lives of those ‘cheap labor’.Avarice?Greed?All of them.
Saving energy and more effective use would alleviate China’s starve for energy,and more lives could be saved.Of course the government is to blame for its failure in regulating the market.
What’s your point of view?
Regulating the market, not a particularly successful method of resolving the problem. In China most of the mine-owners happens to be the government. The root cause of the problem lies in the low money value of the worker’s lives in the market place here in China. Right now it is a relatively minor cost to compensate for death or accident. If that cost was high, then the market place would resolve the issue because the mine owners, whether government or private, would take steps to insure minimal cost relative to compensation for death or injury. This usually would evolve into using secondary forms of labor, that is using technology rather than humans.
As far as a better use of coal, China is already embarking on a major installation of nuclear power plants in order to divert coal from being feedstock for power plants to being feedstock for the petrol chemical industry, a more rational use. Energy conservation, more often than not, as used by tree-huggers is a code word for state intervention, which if used is either not successful or if successful extremely expensive. On the other hand, if energy conservation is a function of the market place, where the cost of more efficient use of energy is lower than non-efficient use of energy, then you will quickly get energy conservation.
Thanks JFS,great explanation!
I agree with you.Feedstock for the petrol chemical industry as a better use of coal is way more rational and efficient.And set energy conservation as a market function sounds very nice.
But I was thinking that China as an over-populated country with huge surplus of labor supply,payment for miners wouldn’t be at a reasonable level in a pretty long period of time.As long as human labor costs less than technology,mine owners,be they government or private,would continue to use humans rather than machines.High compensation for death or injury might be a possible solution,but where is the money from…emmm,over burdened government budget.
John,
Thanks for the great photo links. The miners and the minority photos are the best!
http://news.hexun.com/detail.aspx?lm=1672&id=1068320
i read an article on this issue yesterday
Mikez: You pretty much hit it on nailhead. Artificial means probably will not be very effective either, the miners themselves would be prepared to form communes to do the tasks with the risks involved as it is. At the rate of growth of the economy, corrective action will probably take place when the miner’s grandchildren reach maturity.
Hi, I am one of the webmasters of http://www.xitek.com, I find Chinasplice by google. Thanks a lot for your nice evaluations about http://www.xitek.com. Why not join us by showing your pictures taken in China? We are definitely interested in the views about China from a Laowai 🙂
It shocked me a lot .I have never seen them before ,life is so hard that our life can not bear it .In fact ,I know so little about life ,about hardships .I think i need to package my bag ,start my journey and try to taste the bitter of life .I live for my dreams ,also I live for the whole society .