AS THE WHEEL TURNS -- TO CHINA? II

CHINA THEN & NOW II 

NANJING 1981 

AS THE WHEEL TURNS II 

Forbid the ownership of private cars; start allowing for markets, especially in agricultural goods; and Voilà! Chinese farmers hitched up the farm machinery they did have, and drove to the city to sell their wares in town. 

Pictured above, vegetables being driven into Nanjing, China, in 1981.  Outstanding feature of the vehicle of choice (or of the mother of necessity), what I came to call a "naked engine." 

CHINA THEN & NOW: MAID & CHILD

CHINA THEN & NOW

MAID & CHILD, NANJING 1981

In 1981, the People's Republic of China was on the cusp of major change. The Third Plenum of the Eleventh Congress late in 1978 had seen Deng Xiaoping's return to power and a new line proclaimed. When I first went to China almost two and a half years later, the new line had begun to be implemented, but ordinary people were not yet sure that it would triumph, and the new policies endure.

The first, sometimes tentative shoots could be seen in, for example, "free markets" -- as in a farmers' market in Yan'an. Under Mao Zedong the exploitation of labor had been frowned on, but in Nanjing I found a lower-ranking cadre who had a maid for his small child (above).

Cremation had been promoted in Mao's "New China." Burial in graves was discouraged as wasteful of scarce land. Yet in Ji'an in June 1981 I came across an early-morning funeral procession, which quickened its pace and tried to escape notice when discovered.

More generally I recorded both the distinctive city scenes and historical sites and the everyday activities of farming and eating and buying and selling and transporting goods to market and living life.

Now these photographs and many others taken in 1981 and since are being collected in a book: HERE BE GIANTS.

AS THE WHEEL TURNS -- TO CHINA?

AS THE WHEEL TURNS --

TO CHINA?

NANJING, CHINA, 1981 

More and more there is talk about China becoming the new giant in the automotive industry (for example, in today's Washington Post). 

So, a look back to the reality on the ground, literally, just over a generation ago, in 1981 in Nanjing. Private cars were forbidden. The blue creampuff above doubtless belonged to one official -- cadre -- or another, or more properly, to the official's work unit. Curtains in the windows encouraged privacy.

Somebody Important must have come in that car.