One of the adjectives I hate hearing China described as most would be the word "mysterious." It's one of those descriptions that brings to mind images of the turn of the several decades ago when Asians were referred to as "Orientals" - um... we're not a seasoning - and the US wrote informatively racist pamphlets of how to tell us all apart.
China isn't actually that mysterious - especially the day-to-day aspect of it is pretty much an open book where you can regularly get glimpses of very private details into stranger's lives. True to the cultural notion of group vs. individual, traditional Western notions of "private space" are often interpreted as "public spaces" here. There's no sense of "your space" or "my space" it's all the "group's space" and as a result you get a wonderful, voyeuristic array of outdoor dance lessons, constantly open front doors and incredibly public displays of both anger and affection.
Robert van der Hilst has created a beautiful collection of photographs of the interiors of local homes. The above photo shows an elderly couple who have instated a shower in the kitchen due to the apartment being so old that the regular taps don't have hot water. Thus the shower acts as both a shower and where she does kitchen washing up.
The best pieces in his collection for me are the ones like the photo above where van der Hilst captures in perfect detail the emotional connection people have with the spaces they live. In his subject's faces and bodies you get one, brilliant moment frozen forever in time of something intimate and private that they're sharing with you.
