URBAN NOMADS IN SHANGHAI

Last week we got the opportunity to visit two special construction sites just outside of Shanghai. Both buildings will meet high energy and quality standards and are being realized in cooperation with the German Chamber of Commerce in China.
One is part of the German Industrial Park in Kunshan as a starting point for German production business in China. At the time visiting, the first group of migrant workers had arrived to set up the dormitories for future migrant workers hired on this site.





The other project is part of the Sino-German Training School with a 3 year vocational college program in Taicang. Foundation work for the factory teaching houses had started when we were introduced to the site and the dormitories were already filled with around 40-50 workers.







We were received with generous hospitality of construction managers and workers. For this we want to thank Liu Han, who was helping us a lot - especially with conducting the interviews.

relocation

demolition

construction

building towers

intensify!

“Poverty steals a lot of things, like your home and car and food, but it also steals something on the inside. Help-Portrait feeds that something on the inside.”
— Annie Downs, Help-Portrait Events Coordinator



Help Portrait is a global movement initiated by the online photo community Flickr. Photographers around the world go out and take photos of people, who have never had the possibility to get their portrait shot – this year on Dezember 4th.
While each city and community offers different approaches to this concept, the Shanghai-based Flickr photographers met in a school for migrant worker children in Minhang district. The location was found by Xintu, an NGO focused on helping Shanghai’s migrant communities.
Thanks to Sue Anne Tay, author of the fascinating blog http://www.shanghaistreetstories.com/, we got an impression of what was happening behind the lenses during that day. She was one of the main organizers of Help Portrait 2010 in Shanghai and introduced us to the photo community here - a team of dedicated photographers, who organized the whole event.
The Flickr photo community Shanghai managed to set up professional photo studios within a few hours, including the management of the rush demand of people who wanted to get their portraits taken. Because of their big engagement before and during Help Portrait day we saw a lot of happy children running around, proudly showing their portraits.