Toiling in the heatwave: whither thy subsidy?
His world was a three-block radius. Each day before the sun rose, he would wake from his dormitory bed which creaked from rusty springs. The mattress was thin…
building
A slice of winter wonderland
[imagebrowser id=19] In the three years living in Shanghai, I’ve never really encountered a good snow day. You know, the kind that can silence a city, or in…
A day of rest
He was sitting alone, surrounded by concrete sand and mud, reading a newspaper on top of a tiny table. Behind him was his home, a large blue storage…
How do you view China?
If I were a romantic, I’d paint a picture of China’s social and economic contrasts. A stalwart worker poised on his bicycle, a mode of transportation that once…
Everyday is bring-your-child-to-work day
At the moment, existing or ‘live’ old neighborhoods that are spared from the wrecking ball are either refurbishing their exteriors or reconstructing in slivers of spaces that can…
Worn sole, worn soul
Apparently, in shoe factories in China, it takes two hundred pairs of hands to make a running shoe. Cutters stamp sheets of fabric to form soles, stitchers then…
The makings of a humble pancake
For poor construction workers, each meal is about loading up enough carbohydrates to carry them through the day of heavy lifting, shoveling or jack hammering. The foundation ingredients…
Office space
They all called me 小姑娘 or “Young miss”. This group of workers is by far the most cheerful lot since I started visiting construction sites and photographing workers…
Bringing down the roof
You see them almost immediately as you emerge from the Dalian Road Metro (大连路地铁站) station along Changyang Road (长阳路), a jarring picture against the late afternoon sun. Two…
Feeding the workers
The business of construction involves more than labor and machinery. It often extends to an integrated supply chain of services solely aimed at addressing the daily needs of…
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