Results tagged “citylife”

When migrants move from their villages to look for jobs in the big city, they often don't take the kids. According to a recent press report, as many as one out of six children in China - 58 million - are left behind with town elders. This video is about some of the “left behind” children in the southern provinces of China. Source:McClatchy

Jonah Lehrer's piece in the Boston Globe got us thinking (or, at least, trying to think — our brain has been subject to Shanghai for six years now):

The Top 10 favorite sounds of Shanghai contest is over and the results have been announced. The reports (in Chinese) that we've seen thus far, which are more or less identical, do not have the list in its entirety. However, the reports all mention that the Reeb beer song is one of the top ten, especially since it's composer, Kong Jia died at age 26. The contest rules stipulate three ways of entering the contest -- you can either record sounds, write something, or call in and tell them what you're favorite sound is. So what else was there? The sound of seagulls at the Waibaidu Bridge, and this unique take on life in the city -- the sound of a 70 year-old "empty nest" life. With the kids working and busy with lives of their own, these old people spend their time feeding birds, listening to the radio, talking with each other. This is part of the author's statement: “城市的生活压力让年轻人忙于在外面打拼，难得回家看看老人，空巢老人越来越多，他们的心声有谁倾听？城市发展固然令人兴奋，但深层次的问题也应该引起关注。” ("The pressure of city life is such that young people are constantly busy and working and thus have little time to go home visit their parents. There are increasing numbers of empty nest old people, but who is there to listen to what's in their hearts? The development of the city is definitely exciting, but we ought to be concerned with the deep social problems as well.")

Shanghaiist recently headed over to the Benetton Building to check out a photo exhibition entitled Becoming Shanghai, Three Memories of a City's Transformation (作为上海，一个城市变化的三种记忆), featuring the work of three photographers -- Greg Girard, Fritz Hoffman and Jan Siefke. Greg Girard's preface to the exhibition states :