Isaac

Hutong to Highrise Report Week one 1. When : June 5th , at 14:00 Where : Foreign Affairs Department Street ,the neighborhood of Peking Union Medical School which was sponsored by the Rockefeller Fundation, and was constructed in the year of 1918. Who : An old lady of 60 years old ( She was interested in it but declined because she had to look after her grandchild) A professor from Peking Union Medical School (He listened to my presentation, but he declined because he spent little time living there) A young lady living in a house located very behind (She refused by the reason of indifference) A middle-aged doctor from Peking Union Hospital(He listened to my description, but he also declined very politely. His problem is lack of time.) A woman of 30 living in the basement of a very staring villar.(She refused for no reason) The niece of a very famous Chinese nurse, Miss Lin (She warned me that if I stayed there she would call the guards) A retired doctor of 50 years old, Mrs Yu, who is now in charge of the gate and living in the neighborhood (After I told her about our project , she finally agreed to help us) How : It started a little bit ridiculous. I was playing the flute in the garden trying to attract someone. Later on , I was told that was very annoying. Then I just went up to the people walking outside , introduced myself first, showed them my ID card, describe our project and ask for their permission. What: Mrs Yu was reluctant to help at first. Because she thought it was not just her business. A lot of residents would be concerned and actually most of them were against such kind of activity for various of reasons. And I told her I totally understand. And such kind of thing conducted in China, would involve a lot of more complicated stuffs. If I had brought anything trouble to her , I would have felt guilty…(In a word, I just followed her wills and agree on everything she said. Meanwhile I told her how meaningful and educational our project is.) For a while , she was moved and willing to help us. Then she read the compact very carefully and asked me to translate almost each English words.(But there are something ambiguous in our compact.)She refused to sign at that time. Plus she asked for one whole weekend to take more pictures, i.e. She would like to return the camera on June 13th.After I had got Carrie’s permission, I said yes. In the end ，I taught her how to use the camera and took two pictures. 2. When : From June 6th to June 8th . Where: My place Who : Myself How : I tried to call her and wondered the process, also I’d like to ask her for some questions such as the history, the incidents happened etc. But she didn’t answer. What: I don’t know why , but I had a slight bad presage that the place would not go well. So I went to find two backups in case that I am going to miss the one I’ve found. 3. When : June 9th, 10:00 Where: the Neighborhood Who : Mrs Yu with her friends mainly “girls”, and I How : Arguing and Complaining vs. Explain What: Here are the main extracts from their words. "This kind of behavior is a great threat against our private peaceful life !" ; "Do you have a journalist ID card, and is your organization legal? " ; "Will you act in accordance with the center of communist party,?" "Are we going to be concerned , if you are revealing something bad of communism? " "If you want the camera back, we won't sign the pact and the films and pics which has taken must be returned !" "You should go to our residential committee and police station to get the permission !" I just told them the camera didn’t belong to me. None of us had legal right to keep it or to destroy it. And I told them I would go to somewhere else for the project. We wouldn’t use the pictures taken here, because we decided to give up this place and those pictures would be meaningless for the whole project. Then I “got out of” their Delphi. 4. When : June 9th,10:30 Where : West Hall Hutong No.25 Who : The Ma’s Mr. Ma is 60 years old, he is the member of Beijng Photography lovers’ Committee Mrs. Ma is his wife Miss Ma , their daughter, the one who signed the pact. Mr. Wang, Ma’s cousin, he spent about 15 minutes talking with me How : I went to the people sitting outside , introduced myself first, showed them my ID card, describe our project and ask for their permission. What : Mr. Wang told me his dislikes for the contemporary HuTong phenomena, and his wonderful memory when he was young. Wang thought there are mainly two points why he is for the reconstruction of Hutong. One is there are more and more people here, the density is too large. In the past , Hutong was a wonderful place to enjoy the cool in the hot weather, whilst now, it is too jam to stay. The second reason is that the people who moved into Beijing know nothing about authentic Beijing culture. “All those rubes ruin the original Beijing life”(quoted from him) And he told me his beautiful memory of his childhood. He lived in the AnDing Men area when he was a kid. There were not so many people then. In the morning , he usually caught butterflies and dragonflies by using a fan. In the evening , he would make some paste and put it on the end of a bamboo rod , then go to stick cicalas. Then Mr and Mrs Ma came. They are friendly and kind people. They told me that there was a similar photovoice activity they participated last year so they were very willing to help me and know how to use the camera. I need more time to know them