Beijing Silvermine

[Randy W]

from China Pictorial, a VERY interesting article on the emergent Chinese culture of the 80's and 90's

 

 

Beijing Silvermine: Nostalgia from Negatives

 

In 2009, Sauvin met a guy named Ma by chance, who was working in the recycling zone in Beijing and specialized in recycling trash that contained silver nitrate. The trash usually consisted of x-rays from hospitals, CDs, and also negatives. Ma put everything in a pool of liquid acid and waited for a week until the silver nitrate subsided. He then collected the silver nitrate and sold it to chemists.

The first time, Ma sold him a huge bag of negatives weighing almost 50kg. From then on, Ma called Sauvin every one or two months when he found negatives. Over the following four years, Sauvin continued collecting all the negatives from Ma, and has now amassed over 650,000. It is the “Beijing Silvermine”.

 

http://www.chinapictorial.com.cn/en/features/images/attachement/jpg/site133/20140305/00247e701cc914811cbb06.JPGhttp://www.chinapictorial.com.cn/en/features/images/attachement/jpg/site133/20140305/00247e701cc914811cc109.JPG

 

One standout is a photo of a woman in red dress standing in front of a refrigerator. I immediately recognized the Snow brand refrigerator, which every home seemed to have. I also recognized the exact same curtain, the tricolor glazed horse sculpture, and fake flowers on the refrigerator as we also had before. The curtain, the horse, and the fake flowers frequently appeared in many other photos.

In initial stage of reform and opening-up, the material situation of Chinese people had began improving. Around 1985, film became popular with regular people in China. People began to use the camera to document every little change in their lives, such as a new refrigerator, a color TV, a new amusement park, flowers in Tian’anmen Square, or the first time dining at McDonald’s.

When we look back, we become amused by ourselves at that time: people all fell in line, buying the exact same refrigerator, washing machine, curtain or calendar for their homes, posing with similar smiles in front of the flower beds, or sitting in the same place with “Uncle McDonald” outside the restaurant.

Twenty years ago, even in cities like Beijing, people still had limited options of commercial goods or entertainment to choose from. Such homogeneity, which seems a bit funny to us right now, was quite common and reasonable at that time. Only when we look back at the large quantity of photos of ordinary people can we realize how much China has changed over the past thirty years.

 

 

[Randy W]

Sauvin pointed out that his collection revealed a portrait of China in the early stage of socialism, when the influence of the “cultural revolution” was still visible. He did not consider it an easy time for China. However, he found the unexpected: a lot of happy smiles, a lot of relaxing and satisfying family times. Spectators in foreign countries had not expected that either.

. . .

Sauvin’s collection triggers great curiosity from outsiders to understand China, as well as people living in the country. The ordinary images effectively bridge communication across cultures.

Interestingly, when Sauvin showed the photos to some middle-aged Chinese people, they thought the photos were boring and banal. They responded, “You like these photos? I have a lot of them at home!” In contrast, young adults born in the 1980s were intrigued. Possibly, the photos brought back memories of their carefree childhood, or energetic and romantic teenage years.