Up in the Air

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

China | Sunday, October 17, 2010 | 4 photos

About these photos:
They were taken in a small village Liede on the Dragon Boat Festival of 2008. Liede has a history longer than 1000 years and preserves many Cantonese traditions. At that time, it had been half demolished by the government of Guangzhou for the sake of urban facelift. But the villagers insisted to celebrate the festival. The families who had moved out came back and gathered along the riverbank to watch the boat racing. Different from those official boat racings, the villagers didn't care about speed and ranking. Instead, they exploded tons of firecrackers on boat and cheered in the blasts and smoke, believing that the firecrackers and dragon boats together can bring them happiness and affluence. However the bulldozers kept working nearby to destroy the whole village and build skyscrapers.

It was the last boat racing in Liede. I was deeply touched by the cheer and the strong connection among the villagers, at the same time felt very sad that traditional life was destroyed pitiless. I was lucky to witness it and take these photos.

About myself:
After working as a journalist and editor in China for 4 years, I came to London to study documentary. I have never had any training on photography but I am extremely interested in photojournalism. It seems journalism, documentary and photography are different fields, but for me they are interrelated with each other: it is all about telling a good story, capturing something which might only happen once and increasing communication and understanding.

I have nearly 10 years' experience of backpacking. I am good at communication, self-organized and capable to do hiking. Other than just doing sightseeing, I love meeting local and learning local culture, therefore I lean another world different from my own.