4 min readShi 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 collectivization1 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 Huaxi2, Nanjie3 or Dazhai that continue to be collectivized. This is a clear testament that some dreams and ideas live on, regardless of the situation.
Depiction of the town’s future, Huaxi Village
Video: Huaxi: How did it get rich?
5 min 33 sec
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
Shi Yangkun – A corner of the town square in Nanjie, Henan province, 2018Shi Yangkun – Buildings under construction in Nanjie, Henan province, 2018Shi Yangkun – Fireworks at a restaurant-opening, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Forest park doorway, Dazhai VillageShi Yangkun – Horse grazing in a park, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Hot air balloon, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – House near farmland, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Motorcycle cage riders, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Students visit the square at the entrance to Dazhai Village, Shanxi province, 2018Shi Yangkun – The Long Wish Hotel, a 328-meter-high tower that was the eighth-tallest building in the world, Huaxi, Jiangsu province, 2018Shi Yangkun – The town square, Nanjie VillageShi Yangkun
Interiors
Shi Yangkun – A banquet hall, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – A hotel bathroom, Nanjie VillageShi Yangkun – A kitchen table, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Abandoned swimming pool, Nanjie VillageShi Yangkun – A meeting room at the Long Wish Hotel in Huaxi, Jiangsu province, 2018Shi Yangkun – A meeting room, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – A plant in a meeting room, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Assembly hall auditorium, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Cups and thermoses, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Hotel room TV, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Village committee office, Dazhai Village
Portraits
Shi Yangkun – A resting schoolgirl, Nanjie VillageShi Yangkun – Chen Haiting, 17, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Chen Jing, 22, Nanjie VillageShi Yangkun – Ge Xiaming, 32, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Ge Xiaotong poses for a photo at his office in Huaxi, Jiangsu province, 2018Shi Yangkun – Guo Tianlong, from Nanjie Village, sits on a pingpong table in Henan province, 2018Shi Yangkun – Huaxi’s Party secretary Wu Xie’en poses for a photo at a meeting room in Huaxi, Jiangsu province, 2018Shi Yangkun – Left- Cui Miaoyun poses for a portrait at home; right- A worker at a noodle factory in Nanjie, Henan province, 2018Shi Yangkun – Li Aoxin, 12, Nanjie VillageShi Yangkun – Li Xuyu, 23, Dazhai VillageShi Yangkun – Li Zilong, 16, Dazhai VillageShi Yangkun – Nanjie Village-born Guo Tianlong, 18, Zhengzhou, Henan provinceShi Yangkun – Su Chuncheng, 20, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Sun Zheng, animal tamer, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Two dancers, Nanjie VillageShi Yangkun – Wang Hongbin, 67, head of Nanjie VillageShi Yangkun – Zhao Minfei, 30, Huaxi VillageShi Yangkun – Zhao Mingxing poses for a photo in Dazhai, Shanxi province, 2018Shi Yangkun – Zhao Zhibing, farmer, Dazhai VillageShi Yangkun – Zhou Hui, 28, Huaxi VillageShi 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
