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…
migrant labor
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…
Power breakfast
CEOs have their executive breakfasts at the Hyatt or Shangri La in gleaming skyscrapers. The ordinary construction worker has his by the side of the road amidst the…
The face of Shanghai’s skyline
We don’t pay enough tribute to the backbone of Shanghai’s construction fervor, as unhappy as Shanghai residents seem to be by all the Expo-driven noise and air pollution….
Better city, better life – redux
From a small town outside of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, he looked perfectly airbrushed to be the face of the upcoming Shanghai Expo: the proud craftsman behind the…