ALEX
HUANFA
CHENG

中国幻境

我出生在湖北大冶的乡镇，2012年去法国留学并工作至今。每次回到都深切感受到中国的变化之快。离开中国时间越长，越感觉对自己的国家其实并没有那么了解，甚至越发陌生。网络上中国人集体的狂热和自信，让我开始思考一些问题：“中国梦，实现中华民族伟大复兴。”但我们在复兴什么呢？在享受经济快速增长红利同时，中国社会有着剧烈的文化演变，不同地区人们的生存状态又是怎样的？

于是从2016年起，我开始去中国各地行走，山西，东北，山东，上海，云南等等。我尝试拍摄不同教育背景和经济条件的男女老少，捕捉他们的姿态和衣着风格等。对于每个被拍摄的人，我尽量去捕捉他们原汁原味的形象。余华的一段话让我深受启发：人们对尊严的理解不尽相同，有些人认为富贵和繁荣代表了尊严，高楼大厦鳞次栉比，高速公路纵横交错，商店里奢侈品琳琅满目等等的景象代表了尊严。另一些人却不那么认为，这些人认为尊严来自于人们的内心，表达于人们的表情，尊严和富贵繁荣没有必然的关系。

中国在实用主义和拿来主义的哲学观下，便有了许多超现实的景观，恍如幻境。即便是司空见惯的一些事物，都透着一种不真实感。我拍摄了一些娱乐休闲活动中的人们，一个时代的流行风尚反映了这个时代的主流文化。“中国梦”下的人们穿着花花绿绿的衣服，好不热闹，似乎从幻境中走出来，但“中国梦”似乎并没有复兴这个社会对精神世界的追求。而一部分人似乎也失去了家园的归属，同一个国家，并不一定能同一个梦想。中国土地上充满了矛盾和二元对立的事物，这种复杂性发人深省。但市井百姓不自觉的幽默感和集体的荒诞感，又让这片土地有种充满迷人的气质。这个项目还在进行中，我会继续拍摄中国不同的城市和乡镇，这个时代的中国充满了魔幻和超现实画面，记录下这个时代中国的肖像和风景，这也是我用自己的方式来表达对中国这片土地的爱。

Chinese Wonderland

I was born in a rural area of China, and now I’m living in Paris. Every time I return to China, I have a deep impression that China is changing fast. The potentates promote the Chinese dream——dare to dream, work assiduously to fulfill the dreams and contribute to the revitalization of the nation. Under the philosophy of pragmatism and copinism, and the society has a single ideology and thoughts are controlled. The economic profit is the priority for Chinese people. The economy takes off, but it brings many surreal and incongruous landscapes. And most people become philistine and have no spiritual pursuit. People like to dress in colorful clothes and seem to be embracing the idea of a wonderland, but others seem to no longer belong to the place they live in.

I traveled in different regions in China and tried to capture portraits, postures, and the style of regular people of different ages, various cultural and educational backgrounds, and different economic conditions. I do not apply a predefined concept to the persons I meet, but I try to show their real character and particularity. Some live at the bottom of society have an unconscious sense of humor. Some young people may be innocent and vigorous, but they involve themselves in political acts with terrible taste. Some may look confident and happy while others struggle and their homes were demolished to make way for new construction……

The Chinese writer Yuhua’s words inspired me: Some believe that dignity is found in wealth and prosperity — in the forms of forests of high rises, cobwebs of highways and shops dazzling with luxuries.Others disagree. They believe dignity comes from inside, that it shows in people’s expressions, and has no connection to material wealth.

Contemporary China has too many different sceneries from those of Western countries. It is full of magic, surrealism, contradictions, and duality. This kind of complexity is what makes contemporary China thought-provoking, exuberant, and fascinating. I will continue to explore different areas of China and photograph more people as anthropological researches. This is also a way of expressing my love for Chinese land.