Nov 8, 2008
Los Angeles, Ca
A friend of mine and I are applying for the Dorthea Lang- Paul Taylor Documentary Prize offered by Duke University. The prize funds a collaborative documentary project for a writer and a photographer. We had been discussing our interests and what our pitch for a month now. We wanted to ask a question, a question that would need research, time and dedication on our part instead of simply using the grant money to merely document a foregone conclusion. We both felt that it would be a more interesting way to approach the project. After all, if we already knew the answer, then is not the documentary simply a way to prove that we are right?
We wanted see about a comparative analysis of American market culture compared to the emerging market culture of China (food market that is). As China industrializes and the middle class expands, do they shift towards the American style of sanitized supermarkets and give up on the traditional markets that I have spent the last few years photographing? Or is there something so deeply ingrained to their attachment of that style of markets – knowing that the chicken is freshly killed that day – that China would never become a version of America as they industrialize.
As American becomes more and more conscience of their food choices and the impact their purchases has, farmer’s market thrive, Buy Local and Grass Fed gains momentum. What will the future of American markets be like? Will it ever become a clean version of the traditional markets in China. Will Americans ever be brave enough to look at death in the face and see an animal killed for their benefit and be ok with it?
Are the developing nations have another example to look at, another model to emulate than the West? Without it, will it be able to dream of a different dream of prosperity and progress?
As we finalize our grant application here, NPR had a news story this week about land reforms in China:
“In China, land issues and peasant rebellions have traditionally brought down imperial dynasties. Land reform was at the heart of the Communist Revolution in 1949.
Now China’s leaders have quietly announced a new rural revolution, making it easier for farmers to lease or trade their land-use rights. This will transform life for the country’s 700 million farmers…
Under the new reforms, Beiping village is the first in the province to set up a cooperative. It will lease farmers’ land, consolidate the patchwork of plots, then modernize and mechanize farming.
In return, it promises each farmer 440 pounds of grain a year or the cash equivalent at market prices. After three years, each will also receive a share of the cooperatives profits. They won’t have to do anything for it, unless they want to work for the collective, earning about $8 a day.
Chinese farmers don’t actually own their land, but they do have land-use rights — and these reforms make it easier for farmers to lease these rights or sell them to agribusiness. Any land transferred can only be used for farming, in order to guarantee China’s food security…
‘Our leaders are rolling out policies to help farmers get rich,” Liu says. “They want to close the gap between the city and the countryside. They want to urbanize the countryside. The small fields will become big fields, and we’ll have rows and rows of houses like in the city…’
Details aside, these reforms are far-reaching — China’s Communist leaders rose to power by liberating peasant farmers from the reviled landlord class; now they’re promising to liberate peasants from the land itself.”
(All Things Considered, NPR, Louisa Lim)
I curious as to what China dreams of becoming.
