traditional Chinese courtyard doors

China’s tourist industry is booming, giving historic towns a new lease of life and a new revenue stream. But, as developers and entrepreneurs move in to create new tourist destinations out of these forgotten places, authenticity, history and some could argue, taste, suffers. This article and film is the story of one American couple who are trying to set a new example. Are they doing justice to the artistic and historical tradition of China or imposing Western ethnocentric ideas of what is appropriate on a nation who knows what it likes and wants more of the same?
This is also a good analogy for the dilemma brands and advertisers face in China. Should local preferences that run contrary to a perceived Western norm be respected as a valid local cultural preference or seen as a backward inclination that needs to be challenged? Making the wrong call could lose you consumer affinity on one hand or thought (and market) leadership on the other.

a still from our film, a Chinese student’s family photo in Dutch national costume

The West has been fascinated by China but what does China think of the West? Increased affluence and relaxed Chinese and international travel restrictions has opened up the West to millions of Chinese so how does this new exposure to occidental values affect the Chinese who study, holiday and work in the West? What impressions of the West do people return with and how does it reflect on life back at home? Is life that different? And if it is different, is better or worse? We talk to students in Delft about their experiences, watch the film here.

Protesters converged on the City of London today as the G20 met.

What is the dress code for a demonstration?

First of all, don’t look like the sort of people the demonstrators are protesting against. Police have been advising city workers who usually wear suits to dress down for the day.

But what many bankers think is casual dress is very different from the younger, more counter-cultural crowd filling up the streets today. It’s pretty easy to guess who’s management and who’s not. (Different degrees of blending in illustrated above).

This is a classic example of how a generally understood term (casual dress) is interpreted in very culturally specific ways. Obvious? But how often are other, extremely wide terms such as ‘aspirational’, ‘cool’ or ‘desireable’ get used as a matter of course in briefs without properly clarifying what that actually means for the intended audience? Understanding the aesthetics and cultural reference points of your audience is key and getting orientated takes a rich, visual medium like film as well as culturally sensitive interpretation and recording. Missing this information means you strike the wrong note with your audience, like wearing a rugby shirt with clean shoes amongst trainers and hoodies.

internet meme du jour

Full disclosure here: we may be called Honest Films but that doesn’t mean we don’t understand how images can be seen as being ‘real’ when they, and the meaning imposed on them, can actually be very much constructed and misconstrued.

As the video illustrates, meaning is not intrinsic to an image but rather constructed through the production and interpretation of an image. The basic material (kittens) remains intact but the meaning “We’re wine bottles!” is clearly one the reader’s unique perspective has constructed - the kittens are not wine bottles nor are they trying to be wine bottles. The idiosyncratic interpretation here provides entertainment but becomes problematic when a film is meant to be representing a culture, a ritual, a person’s life.

This means labelling, context and production are crucial in creating visual documents that not only represent the subject accurately and without prejudice as is possible but also is supported and presented in a way that guides the appropriate interpretation. For us that means that we present the films we make as part of a wider debrief and discussion of our fieldwork, all done by the researchers themselves. We also involve participants in the production of the films and will always take into account, what is happening off camera, on camera and behind the camera in our process.

Those interested in food and anthropology should check out ‘Exploring food, Connecting Communities’, Sunday March 8th 10:30am -4:30 pm at the British Museum, London.
The event will bring together a range of perspectives from local food producers, teachers, students, social scientists and anthropologists, on food, culture and community. The event aims to raise public awareness of food projects that exist within different communities in the UK and abroad, and foster future collaboration between associated groups of individuals. A central theme of the event will be to explore how the International Slow Food Movement has inspired local food projects and the ways in which the movement’s ideas of local, sustainable food production have been adapted to suit different community needs. The event aims to address questions such as: How have food projects and healthy eating/cooking campaigns helped to generate awareness and shift consumer attitudes? What are some of the difficulties faced by farmers and others involved in food production? How can we address concerns regarding accessibility and affordability? What are some of the problems with our current food production system?

The event is free but booking is required.
To reserve your place please email: education@therai.org.uk or phone 020 7387 0455.

work based snowman, Spitalfields, London

The recent heavy snows in the South East of England has triggered a classic set of culturally specific set of behaviours;

Schools shut.
Most people stay at home and those who do turn up leave early.
Snowmen are built and snowball fights break out amongst workers who do turn up
In essence, its treated like a genial national disaster. This is bemusing to anyone used to heavy winter snow, especially as this can be triggered by the lightest of snow fall.
Although there’s some practical justification for this behaviour (as a country unused to snow we don’t have basic equipment to tackle it) there’s something about it all that makes me think this is is more about cultural remission - the conventionalised relaxation of social rules - than weather. Like other times of cultural remission such as festivals and holidays, playfulness is expected, formalities are dispensed with and the natural order of things subverted. I think snow offers a chance to break the routine and stuffiness and enjoy the short period of anarchy it brings.
Of course, like English snow, this isn’t sustainable so this doesn’t really go beyond a day, after that we revert to our other weather behaviours such as moaning.
Snow and home videos from the BBC here.
Typical newspaper wailing and bemoaning here.

Below are some of the wishes and they offer an insight into being a child in the local area. It’s also cute, touching and a little sad.
Ethnographers call this the ‘data in the margins’ - unexpected revelations and emotional nuance that reframes information and offers new avenues. This is just the sort of richness our films offer to clients, helping them get beyond the trite and the obvious.

Chinese New Year Celebrations, Liverpool (Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)

Liverpool’s Chinese community dates from the 19th century, so celebrations here aren’t anything new. The Guardian has a photo record of Chinese New Year celebrations around the world here but it’s not only a record of the festival it’s also a record of the Chinese diaspora and communities they have founded across the globe.

If you haven’t already seen it, please have a look at our CNY video card, shot during the festival in rural China last year.

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

This time we ask the Billion Yuan question: what does ‘cool’ mean in China?
To find out we’ve been asking students,

hanging out in dorm rooms

and running through cities.

More details and a clip can be found on our films page.

The Photographers Gallery’s show Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 08 features Steve Schofield’s  Land of the Free series.

Yes, the contrast between the homes and the fans’ costumes is comedy gold but it’s the stories implied, the personalities that come through because and in spite of the costumes, the familiar situation simultaneously celebrated and subverted that makes this series so good for me. This is just the sort of thing we look for in our films too, to visit the familiar and average with a fresh perspective that renews the topic.

Do please have a look at the full series, it’s genius.