Understanding China Using Cropped

& other ‘taken’ images by Chris barrett

Futures[new]

often referred to as the ‘one-child policy’ by those outside of China, the policy of birth planning (Jìhuà shengyù Zhèngcè) has been deemed an iconic symbol of the country. From 1979, along with the economic reforms attributed to deng Xiaoping, the policy limiting births was gradually implemented across all of China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the mainland. its purpose was to fast track the youths’, and thereafter the country’s ascent into the developed world – all the while containing the population and lessening the risk of hardship and famine. since 1979 however, it would seem there have been as many variations in the policy as there have been incidences of humanitarian concern, and it is only under the guise of economic benefit that the policy has been maintained to this very day.

the people’s republic of China is a country going through several stages of development simultaneously, whilst also channelling a lot of its energy into maintaining an image of harmony. the on-going work produced for

the exhibition which spawned this paper aims to present an honest and inquisitive visual response to this harmonious veneer and the discord that can be found behind it. a series of formal images that study the average modern Chinese family are integrated with a selection of other less-promoted imagery, including images published on Weibo – the Chinese equivalent of twitter. this was done in order to address the much-talked-about ‘two Chinas’. the notion of these two separate entities parallels the overwhelming disparity between those who benefit from the system and those who do not. outside China the policy is seen as highly controversial, but in China the vox populi suggests that there are mixed feelings toward it. China now stands at a foreign crossroads and the policy’s future can be questioned and challenged in an official capacity. at this period in Chinese history, can the Chinese Communist party afford to lessen its grip on the ‘individual’?

one imagines that this will become a major issue in defining China’s new future. We should

not underplay the importance of the next ten years in China, as events within the country will have far reaching consequences for us all. it has been my aim as a photographer to touch upon an enduring exploration into the intended and unintended by-products and ramifications of the birth planning policy, and question what the future holds for the people’s republic of China, its populous as a whole and the individuals amongst that population.

i understand that i have only scratched the surface of the extraordinary dynamism in China and glimpsed the many contrasts and contradictions that underpin the everyday conflicts of people and Republic, economic reform and human need, which are all ultimately encompassed in China’s own persistent notions of modernity and tradition.

as the social story unfolds i seek a fresh narrative with an increasingly Chinese voice. this is surely the way to gain a just understanding of the world’s soon-to-be largest economy.

Understanding China Using Cropped

& other ‘taken’ images by Chris barrett

beiJing, tiananmen sqUare behind this family is the Forbidden City, an historic emblem of China that boasts a huge portrait of China’s most recognisable political figure – Chairman Mao. As the founding father of the people’s republic of China (prC), mao advocated the importance of a large population and was keen to stress this through statements such as “ren duo Liliang da” – “With Many People, Strength is Great”. The rhetoric significantly changed under the leadership of deng Xiaoping, who took control of the party from 1978-1992 and is widely credited with the Opening Up policy. as the economic reforms began to take shape, so did the policy of birth planning (Jìhuà shengyù Zhèngcè), often referred to by the outside world as the ‘one-child policy’.

Family with boy, in the courtyard of an apartment complex linked to a coal power staton. Zhengzhou, henan.

Family with girl, in front of construction screen having just come out of the hospital, guangzhou, guangdong.

Family with boy, on holiday visiting the temple of heaven park, beijing.

Family with girl, outside mcdonalds in the city center Zhengzhou, henan.

photo wall of delivered children taken in a private maternity hospital, Zhengzhou, henan.

stage in the canteen of China’s last maoist collective, nanjiecun village, henan.

Captions For opposite page images sourced from sina, Weibo.

1 Chen guangcheng & family. as a civil rights activist in Linyi, shandong, Chen is involved in highlighting cases of abuse in regards to excessive enforcement of the family planning policy. earlier this year Chen, who is also blind, made an extraordinary escape from his house where he had been under house arrest since 2005. Chen is now in the Us where many people in the Chinese blogosphere criticise him for leaving his homeland. 2 in June 2012, images of Feng Jiamei from shaanxi province and her aborted seven-month-old baby quickly spread across the internet and were later deleted by the authorities. although the images, taken by her husband, had been distributed throughout Chinese social media and the international press, little is known about the images in China. 3 in november 2011, images of Zhang Wenfang appeared following her month-long detention in an underground room in hubei province for persistently seeking justice over a late-term abortion that she was forced to undergo over a decade ago. at eight months pregnant, government officials dragged Zhang to a health clinic to undergo a forced abortion. an accident occurred during the operation and Zhang was left paralysed from the waist down. her local government pledged to award 400,000 rmb (£40,000) in compensation as a result of her petitioning, but the money has not materialised, while persecution against Zhang has continued. 4 in China, researching the birth planning policy and including the words ‘abuse’ and ‘punishment’, this image appeared in the search results. similar to Feng Jiamei’s, there was no verification or caption with the image. having saved the image and refreshed the webpage, the image had disappeared. the lady and child remain unknown.

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5 a tourist sits by a slogan that reads ‘be a husband, be responsible for one Child policy”. old propaganda messages are often posted online by users as a way of poking fun at governance in rural areas. 6 a mother holds a picture of the child she lost during the 2008 sichuan earthquake. the natural disaster was a stark reminder of the dependence parents will have on their children in the future. this facet of the policy is one of the strongest topics, resonating with many Chinese in terms of the negative facts surrounding the debate.

7 in the 1950s ma yinchu advocated the need for population control. at the time, his views where not shared by the party, and were considered counter-revolutionary. during the 1960s ma was “withdrawn from public life”. in 1979, around the same time that deng Xiaoping implemented the birth planning policy, all charges against ma were retracted, he was made honorary president of peking University and his ‘new population theory’ was republished. 8 in 2011 one of China’s most daring publications, Caixin, ran a story on abducted children from shaoyang City. the story is still available online via the official Caixin website which, being primary a business publication, manages to evade censorship while pushing the boundaries of journalism in China. its editor hu shuli is a highly respected figure in China and abroad. 9 a wealthy couple in guangdong had eight babies, using two surrogate mothers. there was outrage when the story was published in the guangzhou daily and a short- lived debate about wealthy people being able to flout the rules was a briefly permitted topic. Many people remain baffled as to how the couple managed to get away with so openly disobeying the rule.

poster From the Xi’an seXUaL heaLth edUCation eXpo sUpported by the shaanXi oFFiCe oF FamiLy pLanning

in early 2012 the CCp stated that it would overhaul many of the family planning street banners and wall posters. although the single child limit is aimed at urban couples, some chilling slogans such as, “if you don’t get sterilised, your house will be demolished”, “We’ll kill all your family if you don’t follow the rule” and “if you escape (sterilisation), we’ll hunt you down…if you want to hang yourself, we’ll give you the rope!” were often found in rural areas. these are to be replaced with more suggestive slogans, such as: “Caring for a girl means caring for the future of the nation.”

seX shop ZhengZhoU City, henan

this family own and run the shop they are pictured in. the success of the sex shop stems from cheap goods manufactured in the south of China, which are sold to an increasingly open-minded consumer-orientated society. the parents are pictured with their young daughter who was studying english at the shop’s counter.the family later told me they also had an older son who was studying Law at one of beijing’s most prestigious universities. it became evident that they were able to afford the social Maintenance Fee - the fine for having an extra child. this image illustrates one side of the ever-increasing divide occuring in China. seen here is a family who can obtain the life of increased benefits offered by the Chinese Communist party, yet make a living from a sex shop.

“population is no easy topic, one child policy does bring some problem to our generation, but it is the only way to contain its large population expansion in mao’s time. if we do not contain the population then, we may face some quite different problem right now. the economic situation is far better than any other european counterpart.”

“…if you think you can financially afford by all means produce as many as you wish, but if not, then you better not to do so. The policy does conflict the interest of people in this regard, i guess it is basic human right to decide whether they want to have baby or not. having said that, i don’t think the western way is right either, given all these people on benefits depend on their livelihood on producing babies, in the end, most of them turns out to be society garbage and tax payer have to take the hit.”

“i guess what should be changed is the tradition to have children to inherit the family legacy”

“having children or not, and having how many children should be an individuals free choice”

“the economic situation is getting better in most of the cities in China but still not stable. the population should be controlled strictly and spread out more”

“the only concern is that more people start to ignore the policy because they dont care about paying. goverment should think about some new ideas.”

“...people need to learn to live responsibely and do what they can afford not beyond their means. after all, we are living on a resource limited earth, one day these resource will run out if we consume too much than the earth can possibly meet.”

“sex experts say the policy has created the possibility for women to enjoy sex when giving birth to children is not a goal or purpose of having sex”

“…it is the necessary means to contain the massive population. i think of Chinese doing earth a favor to save man kind.”

“in the long run i think it has changed the mentality of a generation, as we all grow up as single children and know less about sharing and compromising”

“i never thought about it, but i feel strange when i know someone has a siblings”

“the policy doesn’t work for the rich group”

“yes i do agree with a limit”

“there is a male/female ratio out of balcance due to chinese prefference on a boy traditionally. the current generation has much burden to look after the elderly and young. at the same time the welfare system is not well developed”

“...if something went wrong with us, like disease or early death, and if then our parents are too old to have another child at the time, they would live in tragedy for the rest of their life”

...because of this policy chinese parents loose the opportunity to be mentally mature and rational parents. they always are competing and comparing, rather than cherishing the uniqueness of their child.”

“the population dropped which is good for the country”

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aLL qUotes taken From Chinese nationaLs born aFter 1979.

Underpass Linking tiananmen sqUare to the Forbidden City

this rural family are from the south of henan, one of China’s most densely populated provinces. they were able to have three children in accordance with the local law, which permits a family to have more than one child if their first and second children are female. traditionally, many Chinese families favour a son. the limit on births has exacerbated this issue and there is still pressure put upon wives and daughter in-laws to produce sons, but there has been a recent shift in opinion amongst urban and rural families; in urban areas with more liberal thinking, women have enjoyed the gains of resources, such as the option of further education available to them; in rural areas, some families now consider having a daughter more beneficial than having a son, as the daughter is less likely to leave the family to work and more likely to look after their parents as they grow older. the ratio of males to females now stands at 120 male births to every 100 female births, with estimates that by 2020, 24 million single men will be left without potential partners.

[ tomorrow’s] Futures

in China today expectation is high, and the growing middle class often feel a conflict with the unspoken deal made with the CCp of restriction in exchange for wealth. the last ten years have been remarkable, lifting an estimated 300 – 400 million Chinese out of poverty (a figure also quoted as being the number of births prevented under the birth planning policy) and increasing the quality of life for an even wider number of people. the last decade has also created problems which would have been better addressed while the economy was at full tilt, rather than during the current levelling out and small decline that is occuring today. tension remains, and some would say that it is on the increase as the consumer-led millions, with widespread internet access, awaken to the implications of a monopoly state. in short, the new leadership will not just be dealing with an economic story – as the last leadership promulgated – but a social story. this social story will increasingly take centre stage along with China’s increasing influence on the wider world.

it is worthwhile to note and understand that as much as China is changing, so too is the world. With China’s rise to prominence comes an increasing debate: ‘whether to stop judging Chinese principles on Western ideals?’ or at the very least to acknowledge that there has

been comfort in a default view to criticise and discredit Chinese society without a willingness to understand its perceptions. outsiders being unable to separate Chinese society from the opaque authoritarian state often spark these perceptions. it also raises the notion that the rest of the world is not entirely to blame for such a default view, as an individual can only work from what information they have, or are allowed, or are able to see.

On the first day of China’s leadership transfer an interesting quote from the journalist peng dingding emerged, stating “the characteristic of China, its uniqueness, is its politics. it has been practicing totalitarianism for more than 1,000 years and Chinese identity is mainly an outcome of politics...” For me, this quote encapsulates the vastly complex nature of China and its present day struggle; identity in a battle of modernity and traditions.

during the rubber-stamping of the new leaders, there have been a number of anonymous outbursts from a few within the system who state that the entire organisation needs to be overhauled. With that said there are ten million more members of the communist party than there were five years ago, and the rhetoric of change within the politburo could prove to be not so much a

hollow narrative, but a narrative that has come far too late. the next ten years will be a pivotal time in China’s history and the party is under more pressure to reform – even more so than after the tiananmen square massacre took place in 1989. ren yi, grandson of ren Zhongyi, one of China’s leading reformers during the 1970s has been quoted as saying, “today, the most important thing is political reform. all Chinese, including those inside the system, agree that it’s the next big thing.”

in the 13th Zhongguó Wunián Jìhuà (Central Committee of the Communist Party’s) five year plan meeting which will be take place in 2015-16, the era of the enforced lone child may well come to an end, as it has in a few major cities. However, the ramifications of the policy will continue for generations to come. a dwindling labour-led workforce and the largest ageing population in the world, combined with the rapid emergence of an educated middle-class-with-a-voice are a few of the issues that are bubbling away in the hot pot of the middle kingdom.

in keeping with the theme of governance by vague slogan let me end with this: ‘tomorrow’s future may well find itself conflicted and unable to escape the past future’.

[new]Futures was a photographic exhibition that took place during China’s 18th Communist party Congress meeting where it confirmed its new generation of leaders. the exhibition was created and produced by Chris barrett in partnership with bamm.

Chris barrett is a british photographer who has been working in and around China for the last 6 years. he was awarded the david Faddy scholarship to study an ma in photojournalism at University of Westminster and has previously exhibited work from his project ‘north korea revisited’ - photo-space gallery, London. barrett is currently documenting the ‘benefit’ children of China’s birth planning policy in the Uk.

chrisbarrettphoto.com

and to ned selby – newfuturegraphic.co.uk

in partnership with

Chris would like to thank anthony & matt along with sophie nurse at bamm for supporting the work, yvonne at the great eastern bear gallery, ned selby (of new Future graphic), alexander newton, Joanna L. Cresswell, ned biggs, steve Wheatley, tom appleby, teddy tian, bruno Ceschel, derek ingram, Chrd and all of the people who have taken part in the research and the many academics and experts who have given advice along the way. thanks also to the Chinese maternity hospital who funded my travels around the vast and diverse mass of humanity that is China and finally, thanks to sisi Xiong for her invaluable assistance throughout the ongoing project both inside and outside of China - i am forever in your debt.

bamm is a consumer insight company creating value from the heart of consumer culture. this exhibition marks the 5 years bamm has been operating in China, uncovering culturally grounded insights for global brands.

bammlondon.comOffice: +44 (0)20 7036 974046 great eastern street, London, eC2a 3ep

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