Kemulang Villages - Photography
Although I did not spend much time staying in Kemulang, I can always get new feeling in every time I visited there. Gradually, I blend into this space where is strange but warm.
Figure 1: The Garbage Collection In The Morning
At the entrance to Kemulang Village, cleaners go every morning to collect the village's rubbish. But walk into the village and there are still many dirty corners.
Figure 2: The Main Road Of Kemulang
The roads in Kimulang Village are too narrow to allow two cars to pass at the same time. As the COVID-19 epidemic eased, most people in the village no longer wore masks outside their homes, except a few Ju min
Figure 3: High Construction Density
There are many typical urban village buildings in Kemulang village: the buildings are close to each other, the housing density is high, the infrastructure is aging, there are safety risks... It's all about this kind of architecture.
Figure 4: The Green Wall Surrounding Buildings
The weather in Guangzhou is always rainy, especially in the dragon boat rain season (May to June each year). So the walls of every home, indoor and outdoor, are prone to mold or bryophytes. And the humid air and cloudy sky cause the washing clothes always dry.
Figure 5: The Dark Corridor Of A Building
The aisles of the old buildings in the urban village are often dark and narrow, and they are often filled with clutter.
Figure 6: The Bare Branch in Kemulang
China has the world's largest number of domestic migrants, with more than 100million female migrants in 2019. Although there is a lot of vegetation in Kemulang Village as in the countryside, there are also some withered or dead plants caused by human activities.
Figure 7: The Rent Advertising In A Corner
On the walls and power poles of Kemulang village, you can often see many small advertisements for rent, which simply state the structure of the houses and the low price. But the contact for renting is almost always not the landlord, but a second-hand or third-hand personal agent.
Figure 8: A Old Shop Of Breakfast
There are many small shops in the urban village, and they are often being operated by the residents of the urban village. The customers who come to patronize these small shops are often the owners' customers as well as their neighbors.
Figure 9: Garbage Collection
During the epidemic, Kemulang Village has to step up efforts to collect and dispose of the village's garbage.
Figure 10: Residents In Kemulang
In Kemulang Village, it is common to see women looking after children, they are often the children's mothers or grandmothers. If there is a slightly older sister in the family, the younger children will also be looked after by the older sister. But it is rare to see the men who take care of their children.
Figure 11: Kemulang Under COVID-19 Circumstance
With the erosion of the rain and the alleviation of the epidemic, the leaflet have been seriously damaged. But no one replaced it, as if the residents in the urban villages had gradually forgotten the outbreak in the first half of 2020.
Figure 12: The Old Building Demolished
There are buildings that are being demolished and rebuilt. Their owners hope to expand their area and hope that one day Kemulang can be chosen by the government for collective renovation like Xian Village. That way they can then receive as much compensation for demolition and rehabilitation as possible.
Figure 13: A Bird On The Wire
There were dark clouds in the sky, which indicated that a heavy rain is coming. In a vacant lot at the edge of Kemulang Village, a bird stands alone on a power line. No one knows what it is looking at.