This is a fragmented story about how the Chinese are confronted with social, economical, and cultural changes in their country. Many Chinese have difficulty with finding their way between the old and the new China. In previous times, the collective was decisive. Values were set from above. Nowadays, there is a huge urge to consumption and a (assumed) freedom of choice. At the same time, ‘harmony’ – earlier a guide for the individual conduct – is now becoming a collective, societal ideal. What happens when traditional family bonds relapse due to a massive emigration to cities? How do those who stay behind on the countryside survive?

The photos and texts are made between 2010 and 2012 during our travels from Sichuan in the southwest of China to Shanghai at the east coast, from Shaanxi in the north to Guangdong in the south, and from the capital Beijing to the southern countryside of Yunnan and Guizhou.

 
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

Material Life Noisy Titojoe documentaries 2013. Dutch edition: ISBN 978-90-809375-0-5. English edition: ISBN 978-90-809375-6-7. Bookazine format, 72 pages including 56 photos and 14 mini-essays. Available in the webshop of Slowdocs publishers.

Material Life Noisy I: Do women count?, Berfrois, Intellectual Jousting in the Republic of Letters, 2012-june

Material Life Noisy II: Monetarized ethics, Berfrois, Intellectual Jousting in the Republic of Letters, 2012-june

EXHIBITIONS
Photographs from the Material Life Noisy project about social and cultural change in contemporary China were shown in:
Podium Mozaïek, Amsterdam (6 March – 28 April 2014)
De Observant, Amersfoort (29 April – 9 June 2014)

PRODUCTION

Special thanks to:

Ilze van Roovert en Saskia Wilbrink / Prinaña grafisch ontwerp; Karlijn van Onzenoort; Lisa Jap-A-joe