Another Beijing: Theatre of the People
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-12-21 10:03
[VOICE OVER] The city is like a theatre. The settings change as time goes on. But the images still linger in our memories.
[QUOTE OF HOST] I'm now at Paris-Beijing Photo Gallery in 798 Art District of Beijing. A Paris photographer has brought his photo collection Beijing: Theatre of the People here, which shows an alternative beauty and peace of the city.
[VOICE OVER] Ambroise Tezenas isn't showing the endless construction and fast-pace life of Beijing. Instead he wants to present the poetic side of it.
[QUOTE OF TEZENAS] I think the impression to be, you know, in a very narrow street with amazing silence, and you are in the middle of it, this impression I found was very strong.
And this is the face of the city. To me, it's almost human. You find this humanity I find at night because it takes out all the element of maybe people passing by and faces. And I felt that this impression you could have, walking through this narrow alley and knowing that this city was about to change in such a huge scale. The contrast was just, yes, amazing. Again going through these alleys was a bit like living in history and feeling the history.
[VOICE OVER] As Paris has gone through similar changes, Tezenas believes what Beijing is experiencing is the natural steps of urbanization.
[QUOTE OF TEZENAS] You know I'm not trying to say oh god they are destroying. I'm just trying to be sincere. When you are to grow up, you have to leave thing behind. If you want to go forward, you have to make choices. And this is part of it. It is complicated. Ruins have to exist. So why showing them? Will it be more interesting to show a perfect hutong or perfect modern building? Not to me. What I felt was, you know, it's going forwards, but it's going to be tough.
