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Horsemen of the Son Kul

My Scholarship entry - Back to China

China | Monday, November 24, 2014 | 5 photos


Well, I don’t live in China cause I do live in Milan, Italy. Yet sometimes Milan can actually become more Chinese than expected. Close to my apartment for instance - next to the Chinatown block. That’s where I met four sisters working in my favorite restaurant, we became friends, we started eating together and then I decided that I wanted to see their real home, back in China. My plan was to join their fifth, youngest sister - Yu - to bring her and their parents some pictures I took before leaving. It was my third time in China and the most special one.
Yu is studying English at the university in Wenzhou and she would like to become an English guide for foreign tourists, but not so many tourists pass by Zhejiang province, even though the large majority of the current migration phenomenon towards Italy is out of Wenzhou. Her English is shy just like her, therefore most of the communication was carried by our smartphones via WeChat - the principal App for young people to talk inside and outside China. This did not prevent her from sharing her food and city and neighborhood with me.
The story is part of a longer term project through which I would like to show with photography to other people the background of men and women that we can meet daily, at a shop, in a laundry, at the restaurant…but we do not normally know anything about. I am convinced that sharing people’s stories can be a starting point for mutual exchange, understanding and respect.

About raya2046

Festival is beginning. Women, lining up with the horizon, trace the field for the upcoming game. At first sight, they seem to be the only living creatures around, apart from sheeps and horses. It's the sign. The german couple and the driver look rather incredulous. We mention the British couple who abandoned half-way while we notice, more and more, that people are coming from far away tents. They may live miles away from each other, but they don't need the Facebook to know what's happening in their world. They will know it from the next horseman passing by their yurt. He will stop for a tea, some rest and stories around the stove.

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