China Everbright (2007-2010)

China is developing and urbanizing faster than any population in history. A small percentage prosper beyond imagination, and others are left penniless, caught between the government’s authoritarianism, the ruling class’ hedonism, and the economy’s overall optimism. These stories are well known, but do not address the circumstance of the majority of the population. The pictures here, part of a larger book project, describe the middle situations, which are extraordinary precisely because they are so ordinary. The people in these pictures do not make headlines, but they are important. They are the ones buying the goods produced by China’s captains of industry, and they are the ones who can push for the government to assist those most needy. They will be the future of China.
An Army soldier stands in a field of plum trees during the Nanjing International Plum Blossom Festival at Zijin Shan outside of Nanjing, China. Zijin Shan is known as Purple Mountain or Purple-Gold Mountain in english.
Children play in giant inflatable balls on a lake in the White Horse Sculpture Park in Nanjing, China.
A young girl looks watches a ring-toss game on the roadside in Suzhou, China.
Tourists walk past construction outside the Tiananmen Gate of the Forbidden City compound in Beijing, China.
The cook at an alley restaurant begins work for the evening in Haikou, China.
A man's hat rests on a fence post during work outside a small house in Pangzhihua Village, Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China.
Houses and farm plots cover the ground underneath the Yangtze River Bridge No. 1, one of the longest bridges in China, in the northwestern outskirts of Nanjing, China.
Buddhists worship at the Qixia Temple outside Nanjing, China.
Wang Shou Ha stands inside her home in Fanzhuang Village, Gangyun County, Jiangsu, China, where she and husband Fan Xi Bao care for their orphaned granddaughter Fan Li Na, 10. The girl's father died in a car crash in 2000 and the girl's mother remarried, abandoning the girl. Both grandparents are over 60 and have health problems which make it impossible to support the girl if she continues school. ..At the time of the picture, China's Amity Foundation charity, was investigating the family's situation in preparation to raise money to financially support these children and other orphans in similar situations. With Amity's support, each orphan, aged 6-12, would receive approximately 1,400 RMB annually (about 200 USD) to pay for the cost of living. Amity works to keep children out of the institutional orphanages in China, preferring to provide monetary assistance that can help maintain a family environment for the orphans it helps.
Shoppers and tourists walk into a subway station near the Nanjing East Road walking district in Shanghai, China.
Guo Yu Hua sits in her home in Fanzhuang Village, Gangyun County, Jiangsu Province, China. Guo Yu Hua is the aunt of Fan Jian Bo, 11, who was orphaned in 1998, who now lives with his aunt and uncle. The boy's father died of cancer in 1998. According to Amity Foundation records, The boy's mother could not cope with the loss of her husband and committed suicide by drinking pesticides. The boy's uncle has a cerebral embolism. The family grows cabbages and melons to earn money...At the time of the picture, China's Amity Foundation charity, was investigating the family's situation in preparation to raise money to financially support these children and other orphans in similar situations. With Amity's support, each orphan, aged 6-12, would receive approximately 1,400 RMB annually (about 200 USD) to pay for the cost of living. Amity works to keep children out of the institutional orphanages in China, preferring to provide monetary assistance that can help maintain a family environment for the orphans it helps.
Construction workers work on the new printing facility of the Amity Printing Company in Nanjing, China. ..The Amity Printing Company is the only company allowed to publish Christian Bibles in China and, with this new printing facility scheduled to open in May 2008, is the world's largest producer of Bibles. The Amity Foundation, the Chinese charity which oversees the Amity Printing Company, was founded in 1985 with the express purpose of promoting education, health, social welfare, and rural development in China.
Men fish in the Yangtze River as barges pass by Chongqing, China. Increased river traffic and nearby manufacturing in the area has threatened the river's long-term ecology.
Women clean benches in a canal in Suzhou, China, while a bride-to-be has her portrait taken nearby.
Yan Jing Ya, 9, was orphaned and now lives with his grandparents in rural Yi Ling Village, Jiangsu Province, China. The boy's father died in a coal mining accident; his mother, who had been purchased for a dowry for marriage from the remote Yunnan Province, remarried after the death and abandoned the child. Yan Jing Ya's grandparents can not afford to care for the boy. ..Fan Wen Jie, 11, was orphaned in 2006 and now lives with his grandparents on a half hectare of land in rural Fanzhuan Village, Jiangsu Province, China. The boy's father died in a car crash in 2005, and his mother remarried in 2006, abandoning the boy, though she still periodically sends money to help the family. The boy's grandparents are frequently ill, and the meager income from farming cannot support his schooling. ..At the time of the picture, China's Amity Foundation charity, was investigating the family's situation in preparation to raise money to financially support these children and other orphans in similar situations. With Amity's support, each orphan, aged 6-12, would receive approximately 1,400 RMB annually (about 200 USD) to pay for the cost of living. Amity works to keep children out of the institutional orphanages in China, preferring to provide monetary assistance that can help maintain a family environment for the orphans it helps..
A mural depicts early 20th century Communist revolutionaries in Nanjing, China, at the Yuhuatai Museum of Revolutionary Martyrs in Nanjing, China.
A statue resembling Pere David's Deer, a native Chinese species now only existing in captivity, decorates a parking lot in a luxury residential and shopping district in Haikou, Hainan, China.
A passenger sleeps on a long-distance sleeper bus in Shandong Province, China.
People wait for trains outside the train station in Suzhou, China.
A boy stands in the muddy streets of Sheng Cun, in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China, while workers unload a truck full of concrete to be used to improve roads in the area. "Sheng Cun" is translated as "Successful Village" in local tourist brochures.
People wait to meet travelers as they arrive at the Hefei, China, train station.
People climb up a rock face at the top of the Purple-Gold Mountain in the outskirts of Nanjing, China.
A tiger skeleton stands in a vat of tiger wine at the Siberian Tiger Park in Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. The wine is said to imbue drinkers with various health benefits such as strength and virility. The wine sells for 780 renminbi (about US$110.00) per half kilogram of liquid. The Siberian Tiger Park is described as a preserve to protect Siberian tigers from extinction through captive breeding. Visitors to the park can purchase live chickens and other meat to throw to the tigers. The Siberian tiger is also known as the Manchurian tiger.
Tourists ascend the Great Wall at Badaling outside of Beijing, China.
A family lights sparklers and other fireworks in the crowd gathered in Stalin Park on the banks of the Songhua River during Lantern Festival celebrations in central Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.
Workers load up a truck in Nanjing, China.
Palm trees are visible through a hole in the wall of a partially-demolished building in Sanya, Hainan, China.
A bicyclist rides down a street during a late summer rainstorm in Nanjing, China.
Freshmen at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine line up for military indocrination training on a basketball court in Nanjing, China.
A woman fights with chengguan police as they dismantle part of her small restaurant and confiscate equipment that she stored on the sidewalk outside of her shop in the Fuzi Miao tourist market in central Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. The chengguan, or City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau, in Nanjing began a crackdown on sidewalk vendors and shopowners in advance of the May 1st worker's holiday. The role of these officers lies somewhere between police and government administration, enforcing urban management policies including laws and bylaws governing sanitation, pollution, city appearance, work safety, and other issues.
People dance with colorful folding fans on a sidewalk in Beijing, China.
A public service film about medicine, health, and hygiene, plays on a temporary screen in a park in Hekou, Yunnan Province, China, on the Vietnam border.
Shoppers reach towards a jewelry merchant in hopes of receiving a free necklace or a discount on other jewelry in Kunming, Yunnan, China.
An Army band performs in a public square at the Keqiao World Trade Center in Keqiao, Shaoxing County, Zhejiang, China, before the Keqiao International Textiles, Fabrics & Accessories Exhibition 2008. Shaoxing County is one of China's biggest producers of textiles.
Visitors to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, step on a hand-made Japanese Imperial flag on the 71st anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.
A woman butchers dogs at the central downtown market in Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, China.
A young girl looks at a mural depicting a 20th century Communist uprising in Nanjing, China, at the Yuhuatai Museum of Revolutionary Martyrs in Nanjing, China.
Jobby, of the punk band Overdose, (right) and Zhou Ge, of the psychobilly band The Angry Jerks, smoke marijuana from a bong made of a soda bottle in a tattoo parlor in Nanjing, China.
A mural depicts early 20th century Communist revolutionaries in Nanjing, China, at the Yuhuatai Museum of Revolutionary Martyrs in Nanjing, China.
A sculpture stands in Nanjing, China, commemorating communism.
People surround a girl lying injured on the pavement in Nanjing, China.
People walk through a street market in the city center of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China. The smoke is from street vendors barbecuing food.
An advertisement encourages environmentally-friendly living practices in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China.
A young boy plays with fireworks near a garbage fire in central Sanya, Hainan, China.
A lone smokestack peaks above the horizon in rural Jiangsu Province, China. Jiangsu Province, one of China's most prosperous provinces, is working rapidly to develop industrial production in its rural counties.