Thanks for coming by.
First, in case you are wondering, let me explain why I'm so keen to use "water currents" as the theme
of this website. For me, the metaphor conveys a sense of the incredible scale and complexity of change
that Chinese people have had to navigate through since the flood gates of economic development were finally forced
open. The economic "sea-change"
here over the past 30 years has, in varying degrees, affected and continues to affect all 1.3 billion Chinese people.
The extent of the social change that has been driven by currents created by this force has to be seen to be believed.
The "sea-change" has been mostly good. In fact mostly very good indeed. Tens of millions have been lifted
out of poverty. Hundreds of millions have witnessed an amazing increase in their disposable income.
And also, much further upstream, there are now about 870 thousand people who have accumulated wealth
in excess of 10 million yuan (about 1.5 million US$). This group are powering the development of the private
sector, as well as the incredible growth in the luxury brand category.
As with all "sea-changes", however, there is also a large degree of unpredictability, not to mention disorientation. As a society shifts
from "fairness" (everyone in the same boat, having very little) to increasing inequality; when people's neighbours
who used to have as little as everyone else suddenly and conspicuously have more than others, then people tend to
notice.
More
to the point, because human nature is what it is, when confronted by the sight and sound of this, many people would then consider
that the significant improvement in their and their family's economic situation was actually less
significant than they had originally thought. The "proximity of inequality", as I call it, is
a dangerous underwater obstacle on China's development voyage, because the increasing "closeness" of inequality
has a far bigger effect on the psyche –
and, in particular, on people's notion of status and well-being – than inequality per se.
I first visited China in 1988, and made several more trips before I came to live and work
here in 1997. I now live in Beijing and in Beidaihe (a small town on the Hebei coast, a few hours' east of Beijing),
from where I travel all around this incredible country. Over the years, I've been lucky enough to journey
to all of China's 34 provinces, municipalities and regions, and to more than 100 cities.
On my travels I am always keen to listen to local people telling
their own stories of what has changed in their lives over the years, and what they think is likely to change
in the near and not-so-near future. I also love to photograph what I see, and write about what I see
and hear. My longest trip was a 35-day 10,603-mile rail journey from Beidaihe to north-eastern China, then to Tibet,
and from Tibet to southern and then eastern China, and back to where I started from. A series of articles that
I wrote along the way, about how some of the people I met are coping with the sea-changes in their lives, are posted
at FAST FLOWING:
There's the story of the young lady who sells Ferraris in Dalian; a blogger in Beijing; a market stall trader in Haerbin who sells Santa Clauses; a national hero who runs the country's biggest sports brand; the auditor who tragically overdosed on hospitality; the school student who eats his way through the Pizza Hut menu; some
of the migrant workers who built the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium; the cook at a panda reserve in Sichuan; and quite a few others.
As well as travelling because I love to travel, I am lucky that my profession
in recent years (brand consultant) enables me to spend even more time touring China. Finding out what
excites and inspires people and, conversely, what washes over them helps me to better understand
how the sea-changes here are reshaping people's lives, opinions and also their relationships
with brands. This exposure to the complexity of China's changing currents continues to remind me that, even after
23 years here, my learning curve is as steep as ever.
That's
why my enthusiasm for recording what I see and hear remains undiminished. In the past two years,
as I have travelled around China, I've written more than 50 articles and 50,000 words that I've published in the CHANGING CURRENTS main section. And I've also taken many thousands of photographs (some of which appear in the PHOTO STREAM section).
I am also keen to explore the wilder side of China (my
wildlife photographs are posted in the WILD WATER section). As well as finding more than 840 species of birds in China (and photographing more than half of the
species), I've also been lucky enough to see Giant Panda in the wild.
The panda sighting is a moment I will never forget. And I dream that my and countless
other children in China and the world over will, one day – say between 20 and 40 years from now – also be able to experience the joy of seeing a Giant Panda in the
wild. After all, that would also mean that China, as well as the Giant Panda, is enjoying a bright future...
...That's because the degree
of success (or otherwise) of vulnerable species and the habitat and ecosystems they depend on tends to be a good gauge
of the likely sustainability of a country's development as well as its society's well-being.
Best regards from Beijing.
Steve
PS I look forward to hearing from you via the AHOY! page.
