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China: "Hands of Pride" Jay Dunn 29 images Created 26 Mar 2008

China, Shanxi, 2003-2007. Much of China today is about modern and money, admirable for its singular focus and determination to make up for lost time. Yet the public reality of progress in the cities masks an elusive and often passionate China of the countryside, a land of hard work and strong opinions. While there have been tremendous improvements in people's lives, many of the visible realities of labor in years past have been simply buried by an avalanche of cars, steel, and concrete.

In most places, labor and farming remain powered by pride and the human back - pickaxe and flat shovel are the tools, four men to push a cement container and twenty-five to dig a trench are the machines. Away from major cities, only the most telegenic projects benefit from contemporary building techniques. Here, at least, only a job impossible to do by hand seems to be done mechanically. Deliveries of bricks to building sites are still done by donkey cart. If they go home, one can see crews of exhausted men, some clad incongruously in suit coats and thin canvas shoes, bicycling out of town long after dark, or if they don't, worker's laundry drying on the skeletal upper floors of an office tower under construction.

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Humanitarian Issues & Cultural Tradition Worldwide
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  • China, Taiyuan, 2004. An important but neglected part of China?s labor force, a worker moves on carrying the tools of his trade..
    China.JDUNN.01.pride.jpg
  • China, Beijing, 2003. Looking much as they did during the Cultural Revolution, women actively participate in the recycling of virtually everything on Beijing streets..
    China.JDUNN.02.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2007. A worker looking for day work waits patiently alongside the road near Luyashan in Shanxi Province..
    China.JDUNN.03.pride.jpg
  • China, Datong, 2003. Street vendors head toward busier thoroughfares as the sun sets in Datong, an industrial city in northern Shanxi Province..
    China.JDUNN.04.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2005. Freshly-cooked chickens are available daily in Jian Cao Ping's local market, courtesy of the vendors who work here most of the day..
    China.JDUNN.05.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2007. Taiyuan Iron and Steel Company, or "Tai Gang," is Shanxi's largest employer. The main steel plant has its own railroad and dominates the area..
    China.JDUNN.06.pride.jpg
  • China, Luyashan, 2007. Early springtime is sheep-shearing season. This procedure was carried in the middle of an empty country road..
    China.JDUNN.07.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2007. A fruit seller counts his change towards the end of a long day. Sales are good during Chinese New Year as many people buy fruit for family gifts..
    China.JDUNN.08.pride.jpg
  • China, Emei Shan, 2007. Mountain-top temple maintenance is hard work for this stonemason, working in the cold and mist that envelops Emei Mountain in summer..
    China.JDUNN.09.pride.jpg
  • China, Dengfeng, 2003. A factory worker heads home down a virtually abandoned street. Electricity cooling towers loom over more and more towns each year as China searches for ways to generate power..
    China.JDUNN.10.pride.jpg
  • China, Datong, 2007. Most small-scale demolition work is done by sledgehammer. This team is packing up at last light in the industrial city of Datong..
    China.JDUNN.11.pride.jpg
  • China, Shaanxi, 2003. A porter on the grueling climb up to the summit of Huang Shan takes a simple lunch break in the sun..
    China.JDUNN.12.pride.jpg
  • China, Beijing, 2007. Repairmen are crucial to China's disappearing bicycle culture. An inner tube hung on a tree or a pump standing up on the street helps people find these important and frequently cheerful laborers. .
    China.JDUNN.13.pride.jpg
  • China, Luyashan, 2007. Early spring is shearing time in the rolling countryside near Luyashan. Villagers tend their sheep year round and make use of almost every byproduct of their herds..
    China.JDUNN.14.pride.jpg
  • China, Beijing, 2003. Plying his noisy trade throughout the day, a veteran pot maker hammers out aluminum kitchenware in one of Beijing's fast-disappearing "hutongs," or traditional neighborhoods..
    China.JDUNN.15.pride.jpg
  • China, Taihuai, 2007. A clear twilight at 3,000 ft predicts a cold night in Taihuai, high in the Wutai Shan area of Shanxi Province. Coal is still used for heating in a great majority of lower-income homes..
    China.JDUNN.16.pride.jpg
  • China, Shaanxi, Huang Shan, 2007. Twice a day, porters carrying tourist supplies climb the tortuous path to the summit of Huang Shan in Shaanxi. An cable car too expensive for poor vendors to use is on the far side of the mountain..
    China.JDUNN.17.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2007. After school is time to stay with mother at the local market. Vegetable sellers in Taiyuan are open early and stay late..
    China.JDUNN.18.pride.jpg
  • China, Datong, 2007. Autumn in the fertile fields south of Datong sees many seasonal activities. This farmer was threshing grain using a traditional ox-team to crush the stalks..
    China.JDUNN.19.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2007. Water is carried in by hand to the homes of factory workers making concrete forms near Taiyuan Iron and Steel Company, one of Shanxi's biggest employers..
    China.JDUNN.20.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2003. A farmer's bike holds the last of the day's pickings of "bai cai," or cabbage, near an abandoned railway in Taiyuan..
    China.JDUNN.21.pride.jpg
  • China, Xi'an, 2007. Sitting out the summer heat in Xi'an, an artisan creates beautiful butterflies and grasshoppers out of wet, green palm fronds..
    China.JDUNN.22.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2007. Machines idle for now, a metalworker takes in the view from his roadside shop near the outskirts of Taiyuan..
    China.JDUNN.23.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2007. TISCO, or Taiyuan Iron and Steel Company, glows in the setting winter sun. Complete with its own railroad, "Tai Gang" is one of Shanxi's biggest employers..
    China.JDUNN.24.pride.jpg
  • China, Taihuai, 2003. In a spring scene that has not changed much over the years, a farmer guides a rudimentary plow through the cold soil of his fields near Wutai Shan..
    China.JDUNN.25.pride.jpg
  • China, Taiyuan, 2007. Summertime welcomes thousands of watermelons into Chinese homes. Farmers devote a lot of their precious irrigation resources to this popular fruit..
    China.JDUNN.26.pride.jpg
  • China, Xi'an, 2007. Everything from noodles to fresh meats can be cooked on the spot along back streets in China..
    China.JDUNN.27.pride.jpg
  • China, Gyalthang, 2007. Looking much like a Vermeer painting set in Europe, a Tibetan makes yak butter using a method unchanged for a thousand years..
    China.JDUNN.28.pride.jpg
  • China, Luyashan, 2007. Early morning with a shepherd near Luyashan in Shanxi Province. Such work has remained virtually changeless over time..
    China.JDUNN.29.pride.jpg