Liu Zhan works as a butcher at a street market near the Yanshoujie hutong in south Beijing, where the cuts of meat rest on stained plywood under deep red lights. There was good news this week for Zhan’s customers, other than China’s gold medal count. The price of pork held steady, a possible result of heavy imports preceding the Olympics and one indication of slowing inflation on food. According to an August 12 report by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, jumps in food prices seem to be leveling off.
It is a slow afternoon and Liu is scanning a folded magazine. His younger brother stands behind him contemplating his cell phone. Liu doesn’t worry about prices at the butcher shop. After all, many people in Beijing have seen worse times than those marked by high pork prices. “People will still eat,” he says. “it will simply cost them more.”
About three miles to the east in Beijing’s central business district, the soon-to-open Park Hyatt Hotel rises above hutongs and skyscrapers alike, affording breath-taking views of China’s newest architectural pearl, the China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters. A concierge ushers people in and out of stainless steel elevators bathed in a deep red glow, and chefs in tall toques ready their kitchens. Seemingly, pork prices aren’t as significant here. It is a different world on the 66th floor where the staff at the China Grill busy themselves attending to select Olympic guests and putting final touches on the high-end restaurant. Set to open early next year, the staff proudly discloses that it is situated in what is now the second tallest building in the city.
As pollution causing factories have been temporarily closed and construction halted during the Games, Beijing’s usual floating population of laborers is conspicuously absent. Yet, even with the polish applied to Beijing for the Olympics, it is impossible to gloss over the incredible wealth disparity that grips even one of the wealthiest of Chinese cities. Olympic banners conceal unsightly lots and migrant worker housing that stand in the shadows of sparkling new structures. Mercedes occupy the same roadways as iron bicycles.
Often it is because of its dichotomies that China draws the world’s eye. It is nation with an exceptionally high Gini coefficient, an economic indicator of wealth disparity. It can also be described as a nation that, while becoming more stratified, has managed to lift millions of people out of poverty faster than history has ever witnessed.
Photographs are unique in their strengths and weakness as a form of information. A single photograph tells the truth, but often only a fraction of a second of the truth. This is why photographers, and photojournalists especially, attach such importance to compilations of photos, or photos stories. It is also why genuinely covering China as a photojournalist can be a challenge.
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