China and it’s inhabitants have witnessed huge changes in the past 100 years, but as time goes by, some cultures, traditions and customs are fading out of people’s lives. Maybe photography is the best way to record these legacies and show future generations about the past. Today we’re gonna introduce Cameron Hack, the starter of the project “Humans of China”, a British photographer who explores the diversity of China with his camera.
Born in a port city in the south of the UK, Cameron Hack has been passionate about traveling since a very young age. In 2014, he started to work in China, actually he didn't know that he would stay in the country for so long until he fell in love with a Chinese girl and decided to stay. Cameron still remembers vividly his first time arrived in China.
Cameron: So it was March 2014, I took a flight from London to Beijing and I didn’t know what to expect. When I arrived at my apartment that they arranged for me, I sat down on the bed. As I was going to have lunch , I was like okay great we’re gonna try some cuisine, and I went to McDonald’s, It’s like fantastic, yeah great.
Inspired by another project “Humans of Hutongs”, Cameron decided to start his own series, that’s how “Humans of China” has begun.
Cameron: Basically you meet somebody, take a story from them, take a photo, and share with other people. Everyone has a story to tell, and lots of people are willing to tell a story, if you project them in a right way.
As working on the project, it opens the door of Chinese culture to Cameron. He has realized how diverse China is, as he said, “maybe myself or others will never really be able to comprehend all these, but I want to give it a go!”—He makes lots of efforts to the project, like there’s always a language barrier.
Cameron: If you do it in London or New York, you can speak English, but if I meet somebody who’s eighty or fifty years old in China, that not able to speak in English, so it makes it more challenging ,but still pretty fun, pretty interesting, pretty good.
Cameron thinks it’s challenging but rewarding, once comes over that barrier he thinks himself become more confident in the language and can communicate more easily with people, also he gets extra rewards.
Cameron: In China, in Beijing it has a language, you got to Shandong you have a language, you got to Yunnan, they have their own language, which’s even more difficult. You have to have a lot of patience, and you need a lot of help from local people who are very friendly and willing to help.
This is not an easy task, Cameron works as a full time job with his partners.
Cameron: Normally me and my girlfriend, she’s Chinese, but say if we do go to Yunnan, she can’t understand them, so we have to go through three people to interview, their family who can speak mandarin, have partners write it down very quickly, take photos then come back to Beijing, write stories in English then translate then eventually posted both in English and Chinese, post every 2 or 3 days.
Some of the minorities have their own dialects, then Cameron will even post the stories in trilingual.
Talking about how many places he has been to in China, Cameron answered with pride.
Cameron: All over China, all the provinces except Tibet.
According to him, Beijing’s convenient transportation system is crucial for the project.
Cameron: “Humans of China”, sounds like a big project, but I probably travel to a new province every month, because the transport from Beijing to other cities is very easy, take the trains, plains or buses. So I leave on Sunday night, spend two days and come back home Wednesday.
In recent years, the capital’s transportation has achieved rapid development. The complete urban rail transit network which has covered more than 805km, the commissioning of Fengtai Station, which is the largest railway station in Asia, and also, Beijing Daxing International Airport, not only effectively relieve the transportation pressure, improve the commutes of the citizens, but also drive the economic development of Beijing .
Cameron has his own methods to approach the interview targets and get in touch with them.
Cameron: Sometimes I have pretty arranged to meet people, especially the old ladies with bent feet. I met their grands on the Weibo. We organized to meet up, or on wechat, and other social network. Sometimes in the park, people come up and speak to me and we get talk and they kinda say their stories and we take a photo, and if somebody sticks out, for example if they’re wearing something interesting or they’re playing something in the park, I’m going to speak with them.
And sometimes good stories just come to him.
Cameron: I initially went to Hainan for three days, because there are some ladies that belong to the Lizu who before had tattoos on their faces, arms and hands. And I’ve posted a few photos on WeChat and with the description said that these are the last ladies with this, soon they’re gonna be none existence. And my friend said, ‘at my hometown, there is ladies with small feet, pretty much the same, these are the last ladies will soon not be existing, would you like to come with me in my house’, yeah sure. I did some research and went to meet the following weekend, and shared great stories. She shared a lot, gave me a pair of little shoes and let me take some photos, and I said wow these ladies have some amazing stories, and they ever have to come by, so maybe if I can find more, eventually I could put them into a book or an exhibition, let them be seeing by the people.
To make sure the stories are exact, Cameron always sends the contexts to the interviewees and gets feedbacks.
Cameron: Especially with the people that arranged to me, normally have a context, after the story written I’ll send it to them, make sure all the details are correct. It’s very important to make sure that the story is written correctly , no mistakes, nothing wrong, or there’s nothing not true, and the story’s sometimes shown to the people, but normally their kids or grandkids, who do get feedback. And they say appreciate what we did and glad that before this person has died or before this person is no longer around, they can tell their stories and others can read these stories, and their legacy, kinda like lives long.
Some stories stick out in Cameron’s memory more than others.
Cameron: A lady in Beijing, 102 years old, I met her and I’d love to get back and see her. She had a really good story, I spent two days with the lady in Yunnan, she’s 79 and at time we played polos together, we ate together, she sang songs to us and she really stuck out. People I’ve met had really amazing stories, both sad and happy.
Speaking of the future, Cameron says firmly that he’ll carry on the project, which find ordinary people, but with amazing stories.