6 min read1 Shi Yangkun – A presidential suite’s bathroom, Huaxi Village
China’s model socialst village is also it’s richest
At the middle of the 1980s the collectivization12 process ended up failing in China. But even so, there are repercussions to deal with and the countryside in particular still retains some of the ideas such as individualism, privatization or marketization. There are villages like Huaxi34, Nanjie56 or Dazhai that continue to be collectivized. This is a clear testament that some dreams and ideas live on, regardless of the situation.
China’s richest village Huaxi: How did it get rich? Take a look at China’s super village, a village so successful in blending socialist ideals with capitalist growth that it seems to have inspired even the North Korean regime. Find out how Jiangsu’s Huaxi Village managed to get so rich in the first place.
Retrotopia by Shi Yangkun
Retrotopia is a series created by photographer Shi Yangkun. It uses photos to showcase the unique tension between all those utopian visions of these communities and the day-to-day life these people are dealing with. It captures resounding, beautiful landscapes, and it also manages to tell the story of those living there in the present greatly affected by their past.
In many ways, Retrotopia shows the true influence brought by collectivization, which shows that some ideas will never die. Shi Yangkun’s project is one of his many ideas as he tries to bring in a clever and natural perspective to the reality of our current times. He works as a photographer in Shanghai, and he has an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography.
Video: Huaxi documentary
4 min 43 sec
Huaxi, formerly a poor farming community, is a powerhouse symbol of the country’s economic expansion, embodied by a giant 328-meter skyscraper.
Photos
Exteriors
3 Shi Yangkun – A corner of the town square in Nanjie, Henan province, 20184 Shi Yangkun – Buildings under construction in Nanjie, Henan province, 20185 Shi Yangkun – Fireworks at a restaurant-opening, Huaxi Village6 Shi Yangkun – Forest park doorway, Dazhai Village7 Shi Yangkun – Horse grazing in a park, Huaxi Village8 Shi Yangkun – Hot air balloon, Huaxi Village9 Shi Yangkun – House near farmland, Huaxi Village10 Shi Yangkun – Motorcycle cage riders, Huaxi Village11 Shi Yangkun – Students visit the square at the entrance to Dazhai Village, Shanxi province, 201812 Shi Yangkun – The Long Wish Hotel, a 328-meter-high tower that was the eighth-tallest building in the world, Huaxi, Jiangsu province, 201813 Shi Yangkun – The town square, Nanjie Village14 Shi Yangkun
Interiors
15 Shi Yangkun – A banquet hall, Huaxi Village16 Shi Yangkun – A hotel bathroom, Nanjie Village17 Shi Yangkun – A kitchen table, Huaxi Village18 Shi Yangkun – Abandoned swimming pool, Nanjie Village19 Shi Yangkun – A meeting room at the Long Wish Hotel in Huaxi, Jiangsu province, 201820 Shi Yangkun – A meeting room, Huaxi Village21 Shi Yangkun – A plant in a meeting room, Huaxi Village22 Shi Yangkun – Assembly hall auditorium, Huaxi Village23 Shi Yangkun – Cups and thermoses, Huaxi Village24 Shi Yangkun – Hotel room TV, Huaxi Village25 Shi Yangkun – Village committee office, Dazhai Village
Portraits
26 Shi Yangkun – A resting schoolgirl, Nanjie Village27 Shi Yangkun – Chen Haiting, 17, Huaxi Village28 Shi Yangkun – Chen Jing, 22, Nanjie Village29 Shi Yangkun – Ge Xiaming, 32, Huaxi Village30 Shi Yangkun – Ge Xiaotong poses for a photo at his office in Huaxi, Jiangsu province, 201831 Shi Yangkun – Guo Tianlong, from Nanjie Village, sits on a pingpong table in Henan province, 201832 Shi Yangkun – Huaxi’s Party secretary Wu Xie’en poses for a photo at a meeting room in Huaxi, Jiangsu province, 201833 Shi Yangkun – Left- Cui Miaoyun poses for a portrait at home; right- A worker at a noodle factory in Nanjie, Henan province, 201834 Shi Yangkun – Li Aoxin, 12, Nanjie Village35 Shi Yangkun – Li Xuyu, 23, Dazhai Village36 Shi Yangkun – Li Zilong, 16, Dazhai Village37 Shi Yangkun – Nanjie Village-born Guo Tianlong, 18, Zhengzhou, Henan province38 Shi Yangkun – Su Chuncheng, 20, Huaxi Village39 Shi Yangkun – Sun Zheng, animal tamer, Huaxi Village40 Shi Yangkun – Two dancers, Nanjie Village41 Shi Yangkun – Wang Hongbin, 67, head of Nanjie Village42 Shi Yangkun – Zhao Minfei, 30, Huaxi Village43 Shi Yangkun – Zhao Mingxing poses for a photo in Dazhai, Shanxi province, 201844 Shi Yangkun – Zhao Zhibing, farmer, Dazhai Village45 Shi Yangkun – Zhou Hui, 28, Huaxi Village46 Shi Yangkun – Zhu Jifang, 25, Huaxi Village
5 min 33 sec
Michael Lin installed a house on a roofInstallation ended (dismantled in 2012)120 km away
