Family Businesses

Since my visit to China, and specifically here in PingHu, was very brief, very much a cultural snapshot, a brief slice of time. Thus, I was unable to tell by looking at this family owned business, which came first, the development of the industrial park, or were they just lucky that the government did not allow their small factory to be demolished with the development of the industrial park??

I repeatedly heard while in China about the resiliency of the people. That they as a culture have often faced adversity, but yet they continue on; bending, flexing, ducking, avoiding, assimilating, and otherwise just plain surviving.

Thus I keep coming back to this image, among others, as a visual representation of the resiliency of the people. In fact, I can not verify that this is a family owned business, but all of the clues are there. And even if it is not, it is a representation of what that might look like.

This is one aspect of urban landscape photography; to reflect back to us what we build, where we build, and how we live, where we have built is a direct reflection on those who did the construction and are living there. The surrounding landscape provides many clues and perhaps outright signs of who we are.

A reflection of what we do and do not value.

Best regards, Doug