CHILDREN RIDING PARENT-CONTROLLED PURPLE ELEPHANTS A whole range of things have been adapted into Chinese culture; it is well known that the Chinese embrace change and development rapidly. Lactose is better assimilated by the younger generations, and so there are now some very tall men and women in China. [ + ]
CHILDREN RIDING PARENT-CONTROLLED PURPLE ELEPHANTS
A whole range of things have been adapted into Chinese culture; it is well known that the Chinese embrace change and development rapidly.
Lactose is better assimilated by the younger generations, and so there are now some very tall men and women in China.
But the Chinese are not only getting taller: it seems they are becoming wider, too. McDonald’s and KFC have been widely accepted and welcomed in China.
Nowadays, China is reaching record-breaking levels of obesity: there are fat camps and fat-reduction hospitals where parents can send their only child to lose all those extra pounds.
In ten years, China’s childhood obesity rate has doubled, with the greatest gains made in urban areas, owing to more Westernized dietary habits combined with more sedentary lifestyles, with more and more kids spending time in front of their computers and playing video games instead of going outside and getting some exercise.
According to recent official figures in China (2012), more than 12% of the nation’s children are overweight, representing some 120 million individuals under the age of 18.
This trend is partially due to a loss of neighbourliness and community spirit . Children have no brothers and sisters, and instead of living in an open environment such as the lilong where there are other children to play with, their typical living environment is an apartment on the 30th floor, with only Mum, Dad and/or Grandma and Grandad for company.
As a result, parents take their children down to ground level – home of the shopping centre and the market place. Then, using a remote control, they set in motion the newly bought purple elephant, or giraffe, upon which the child is sitting comfortably, so that parents and children alike can happily eat their ice cream in peace.
DÉRIVE Thanks to Shanghai’s safety, size and language barrier, it is the perfect city in which to dérive – to drift, to wander… Get in a taxi, walk, take a bus, follow any metro line, until you arrive somewhere… Get lost and discover the metropolis. [ + ]
DÉRIVE
Thanks to Shanghai’s safety, size and language barrier, it is the perfect city in which to dérive – to drift, to wander…
Get in a taxi, walk, take a bus, follow any metro line, until you arrive somewhere…
Get lost and discover the metropolis.
COLD MEAT 1 China is a country where the boundaries between rural and urban are theoretical borders: borders that have become imaginary over time, in the sense that there is neither a true end nor a true beginning to the city and the country, with no starting point and no projected end. These borders are marked only by the points of embarkation and disembarkation where hundreds and thousands of humans pass each day, leaving their families and/or their previous existences, leaving behind the city where they grew up, as it is time to go back to the mother tree – as the Chinese say, “Though a tree grows a thousand feet high, the leaves must fall down and return to its roots”. [ + ]
COLD MEAT 1
China is a country where the boundaries between rural and urban are theoretical borders: borders that have become imaginary over time, in the sense that there is neither a true end nor a true beginning to the city and the country, with no starting point and no projected end. These borders are marked only by the points of embarkation and disembarkation where hundreds and thousands of humans pass each day, leaving their families and/or their previous existences, leaving behind the city where they grew up, as it is time to go back to the mother tree – as the Chinese say, “Though a tree grows a thousand feet high, the leaves must fall down and return to its roots”. They are leaving without knowing for how long, some with their whole family, others on their own. Leaving in order to accomplish their dreams, or the dreams of their family, or leaving to follow in others’ footsteps, in order to give another generation the opportunity to dream. Leaving to see those who were left behind, leaving to help their family at harvest time, leaving to sweep their ancestors’ tombs and to preserve traditions such as filial piety. Coming back to take care of a grandchild, coming back to work, coming back to re-form a family unit, coming back to study and become THE ONE. Coming back to discover, to become attached; coming back to keep promises and to make dreams come true. Each of these individual stories comes together in one place: Shanghai Railway Station.
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