china

Although being the world´s biggest market for cars by now, bicycles are still important and common means of transportation. These cargo bikes in Shanghai are not only used for the transportation of all kinds of goods but also for waste removal.

Photos © by Thies Raetzke

I firmly believe that we learn a lot about a culture by the way various dances are performed and experienced within it. I found and joined a group of chinese people in the old town of Lijiang in the Yunnan province in china, dancing in an empty bar in the middle of the afternoon. Though this is a short clip, this group danced these same steps to various tunes for an hour.

Beijing, Temple of Heaven.
The local and tourist crowd around this busker doing his wonderful performance. Is crazy to bend this way! He was also opening up bottles of beer and start to spray around during his dance. The loud stereo system adds additional mood to his performance! And his hair is absolutely gorgeous!

A single dancer on a chair freezes as others move rapidly around her in Table N Chairs, a modern dance deconstruction of traditional Chinese operas, performed in Beijing's Haidian Theater, Sept. 25, 2009. It was the second time the piece had been performed in Beijing since 2000, when the audience reception was particularly horrible, according to critics who disagreed with the interpretation of the 5,000 year-old cultural dance.

People dance at night in a square in Yichang, Hubei province, China.

Outdoor Ballroom Dancing in Shanghai on the Bund, part of the morning exercise for many local Chinese

Shark fin soup is the primary reason why sharks are disappearing worldwide. Shark fin is a tasteless and non-nutritious ingredient of a popular soup served primarily at weddings and banquets within Asian communities for its traditional image of promoting health and prosperity and reflecting the status of the hosts. Unfortunately the consumption of shark fin soup has skyrocketed in recent decades as China has become more prosperous. Shark fins have become very expensive due to the high demand for shark fin soup, resulting in out-of-control overfishing.

Chinese On The Beach looks at the growing Chinese tourist trade as the number of Chinese tourist increases dramatically year by year. The project is a satiric comment on the mass movements of people for cultural and “scenic spot” consumption. It concentrates on the social interactions between group members and leaders, tourists and the landscape and reveal a new phenomenon that has already launched Europe.