Research and Other Investigations from China

Investigating Beijing’s Underbelly for Travel & Leisure

Clipping from "Beijing 24/7" for Travel & Leisure

Bejing is a notoriously hard city to pin down. It takes years of patient observation and interaction to start exposing the multifaceted nature of China’s capital. I can’t even begin to describe the number of parachute journalists who dropped in for a few days and unsuccessfully tried to capture the essence of the city. It was therefore a great pleasure to provide the photography for the one writer who got closest, Gary Shtenyngart. The satirical novelist spent a week or so in Beijing and left with quite a grasp of the many paradoxes the city has to offer. Maybe it came from his deadpan Russian roots, but he astutely picked apart the absurdities that make the city such a beguiling place to live. Humor is often the only way to get to the heart of the beast. Read the article here. Well done, sir, well done.

Clipping from "Beijing 24/7" for Travel & Leisure

Clipping from "Beijing 24/7" for Travel & Leisure

Clipping from "Beijing 24/7" for Travel & Leisure

Galaxy SOHO Lights Up the Beijing Skyline

Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.

The recently unveiled Galaxy SOHO literally resembles an array of astral objects with its spherical shapes and blazing lights. It now looms above Beijing’s second ring road. It is supposed to represent a big step forward in architecture and its capability to inspire. Zaha Hadid, the chief architect, made an appearance at the launch with a long talk about the space and the possibilities it represents. A strong sense of hope for the future of Chinese design and fashion filled the air. Translating this into viable products and businesses is the real difficulty, though. Galaxy SOHO is certainly an inspiring place for such imaginative pursuits with its elegant curves and charged globular structures. There are excellent lines of site throughout the complex. But are there enough clientele to actually fill it up and create an active and engaging community? Galaxy SOHO is huge: 330,000 square meters of office and retail space. Plus it sits atop one of the most trafficked intersections in Beijing. Right now Sanlitun SOHO is barely filled, let alone Galaxy SOHO which sees less pedestrian traffic and intense gridlock. I will keep tabs on the complex in the coming months. Hopefully it does not turn into a huge empty space like the many others popping up around the city.

Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.

Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.

Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.

Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.

Zaha Hadid's undulating Galaxy SOHO now lights up the night on Beijing's second ring road.

“Weapons of Mass Urban Destruction” – Visions of Modernity in Foreign Policy

Visions of Modernity: China's Guilded Age - Weapons of Mass Urban Destruction Clipping

Foreign Policy’s current issue on urban development focuses almost exclusively on China. Relying on research by the McKinsey Global Institute, the magazine delves into the 75 fastest developing metropolises on the planet, 29 of which are in China (Shanghai and Beijing top the list, respectively). It is well worth perusing the actual magazine, which features photographs from my Visions of Modernity project, and delves into the serious ramifications of China’s ambitious infrastructure projects. Many of these unprecedented developmental efforts appear more and more misguided. My panorama of clustered residential developments surrounding the Huilongguan subway stop in northern Beijing, seen above, accompanies a piece entitled Weapons of Mass Urban Destruction. The article investigates many of the issues I explore in Visions of Modernity, the foremost being the unsustainable nature of urban planning in China and how it effects consumer, transportation and leisure habits.

The Foreign Policy website also features a series from Visions of Modernity where I documented Ikea customers in Beijing who partake in leisurely afternoons settling into faux showrooms scattered throughout the store. Each photograph suspends the shoppers in their appropriated Ikea environments, as if they were in their own homes. Such nascent nesting and consumer habits are catalyzed by the proliferation of individualized apartments in towering residential developments. These are known as megablocks and have become the cornerstone of Chinese urban planning. The monotonous and imposing structures dominate metropolises across China, forming urban islands that extinguish any sense of fluidity within cities. Although Foreign Policy delves into transportation and architectural projects that give some cause for optimism, such stratagems simply don’t exist on a scale to keep up with the massive urban migration China is experiencing and the concomitant demands on natural resources and energy. In many ways, I must agree with Ai Weiwei’s dark assessment of the plight of China’s cities. It can all seem very bleak. More panoramas of Beijing from Visions of Modernity are below.

Visions of Modernity: China's Guilded Age - Beijing Megablocks
Visions of Modernity: China's Guilded Age - Beijing Megablocks
Visions of Modernity: China's Guilded Age - Beijing Megablocks

Bodies of Desire – The 2012 Beijing International Automotive Fair

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

China’s love affair with the automobile is escalating every year, and the biennial Beijing International Automotive Fair is now ground zero for this sultry romance. Nearly a million automobile enthusiasts packed into the gigantic halls of the Beijing International Convention Center over the course of a week just to get a chance to sit behind the wheel of their dream car and admire the scantily clad attendants. The overt sexuality of both the male and female floor models in the trade booths is now increasingly conflated with the status of vehicle ownership. They utilize a practiced set of gestures and poses to better integrate with the curvatures of the surrounding hunks of glass and steel. These intertwined bodies of human and vehicular desire are the height of an erotic symbiosis that incites deeper forms of commodity fetishism. Car purchases in China surged 45% in 2009, surpassing the United States for the first time with 13.6 million vehicles sold, making it the largest automobile market on the planet. China will remain on top for the foreseeable future as more and more people pack onto already crowded streets and highways, even as dealer inventories continue to snowball this year. No matter what, expect more skin and desirous looks at automotive fairs across China.

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

Human and vehicular bodies of desire are conflated and on display at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

“Tigress Tycoons” for Newsweek

Zhang Xin/张欣, Yang Lan/杨澜, Zhang Yan/张兰 and Amy Chua pose for a portrait at Capital M in Beijing, China for Newsweek.

This was one of my most intimidating assignments to date: a portrait of three of the richest females in China along with Amy Chua, the author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, in less than ten minutes before their power dinner. It really was a Tigress Tycoons showdown. The leader of the streak, in my eyes, was Zhang Xin/张欣 (far right). Her company, SOHO China, is easily one of the top real estate developers in China, building some of the most daring (and sometimes dastardly) megablocks in the country. These properties reshaped Beijing’s skyline and netted her about $2.7 billion. Forbes and the Financial Times consistently list Zhang Xin as a top businesswomen in Asia. Her biography is also staggering. She saved up money working in Hong Kong garment sweatshops before moving to England to study at Cambridge and on to New York City to work at Goldman Sachs. Amazing. Next to Zhang Xin is Yang Lan/杨澜, also know as the “Oprah of China” thanks to her massive television presence and media empire. While not a rags to riches story like Zhang Xin, Yang Lan hit it big on Chinese domestic television, sometimes garnering viewing audiences in the hundreds of millions. She was one of the first talk show hosts in mainland China who really spoke her mind and cofounded Sun Television Cybernetworks.

Last and certainly not least of the Tigress Tycoons is Zhang Yan/张兰 (far left). She founded the popular South Beauty restaurants with now boasts over forty locations throughout the country. Known for their opulent settings, they also serve up extremely tasty Sichuan fair. Zhang Yan completed the female power trifecta. Amy Chua is nothing to scoff at of course, but fits into a different category with her academic and literary accolades. Her book promoting the “Tiger Mother” parenting method  sent waves around the world, especially in mainland China. There is even now an “Eagle Dad” spinoff category. Anyway, it was a bit tense at first getting all the ladies together, but thanks to the antics of Zhang Xin’s husband, Pan Shiyi, who decided to take photos along with me, the ten minutes passed without a hitch. Be sure to check out Amy Chua’s accompanying profile of the Tigress Tycoons.

Zhang Xin/张欣, Yang Lan/杨澜, Zhang Yan/张兰 and Amy Chua pose for a portrait at Capital M in Beijing, China for Newsweek.