Interim sauvage, telephone numbers on the street sidewalks
Construction on metal and without security for the workers
Check-point and gymnastic exercises for the restaurant staff
“
My bank, my choice
”
“
One dream, one world
”
The diptic slogans are on the trend. The one of the Olympic Games is directly inspired by the globalization:
“
only one dream for the entire world
”
.
“
My bank, my choice
”
is a message openly focalized on the individual and no longer on the cherished collectivity of the communist period. Times have changed. In the picture you can see a young Chinese man wearing suit and tie, stretching his arms openly, looking up above, the face sanctified. He is imploring the new messiah, the Lord named
“
Money
”
/
“
Qian
”
.
A new religion? At the background an open road to the new 21st century
world: high constructions, modern architecture. This seems to be the new individual ideal, carried on hundreds of millions of Chinese.
The internal politic sustains its economic development investing in construction and great infrastructure projects.
The cities are on permanent constructions from a district to another: buildings are demolished to be reconstructed higher and higher.
The megalopolises have to absorb the regular waves of men coming from the countryside to sell their labor force. They are millions. And they are the cheap manual labor that holds the economic take-off of the country. Some of them just write their telephone numbers on the sidewalk of the streets, waiting to be called by someone who needs their services for a day, a week or a month. No certainty, no insurance
…
total precariousness.
Those who are lucky enough to find a stable job have to get used to the morning check-points. In restaurants, all the staff has to be standing, on the street, in the front of the establishment, lining up. The manager shows them gymnastic movements to be followed; meanwhile they are told some advices of how to become a good employee. As it were a military camp, the staff has to reply in chorus the manager
’
s yelling. Half turn to the right, well lined and disciplined, they will return to their job positions.
Transporte on tricyles have different uses
Card games and good
mood
Peripheral exit: vendor on a chariot
A little nap
Games of Chinese chess: an enclosed world of concentration
...and some siesta too (Video)
Streets not only are an area of transit, a way to go from one place to another, but a space where things happen.
Streets are a full-time social space: the elderly meet for their tai-chi season at dawn or at dusk. In summertime they come together in the shade to play card-games or mahjong, to chat and look at people going by.
The character for
“intimacy”
doesn’t exist in Chinese language. The comportments considered as private or impudent in Western, here are done in front of everybody
’
s eyes. In that sense, for instance, no one is ashamed of having a nap anytime, anywhere. One just needs to find a street-bank, a chair or a place on the ground to have a comfy siesta.
And let’s not forget the corporal sounds
…
more or less at your own discretion…
the noises of the body are not censured, hidden or repressed. People spit or discharge without shame.
Song lyrics distributed or sold in a little pamphlet
Star of the day
Game of "plume plume"
(foot-feather)
Small steps repeated with music, between danse and gymnastics (Video)
Conductor of an orchestra of masses
Tourists
always "wearing caps ", sometimes traditional clothes too
PARKS
Never free of charge (prices between 3-20 Yuan. In some of them is possible to get a year-entrance-card for 50 Yuans: very convenient for the inhabitants of the neighborhood).
In them, people can enjoy the blossom in spring while being photographed. China adores photographing flowers.
Chinese love mounts, irregular spaces and if there are no hills, they just make them up. Synthetic rocks and stones also take part in the desired ambiance. Every time more often, instead of rearrange reality, Chinese just build it on the spot.
Sometimes, trees are also phony. In parks, trees are well treated: if they are too much inclined to one side, a metallic armor to lean on will be placed, and ill branches are enfolded. Sometimes, this
“folding”
can grow to big proportions. Counterfeit in China extend to the boundaries of nature, it doesn
’
t matter if the facade is kept.
In Europe people go to parks to rest and relax: for a picnic on the grass, to read, to have a quiet walk. Some people jog, some youngster play football, but most go to take it easy.
On the opposite, Chinese always find something to do in their parks. Public parks are an amplified prolongation of the social space on the streets. If there is a pool, people fish with or without worm on the hook; they practice gymnastic exercises, sometimes alone, but most of the time with others; they play badminton, they play
“
foot-feather
”
(look at the photo,
“plume plume”), they dance, they sing
…
Chinese are very active.
