Wang’s photographs focus on a changing heartland
Print Edition
While people in the rustbelt of China’s northeast look to the future, photographer Wang Yuwen tends to the past.
Wang, 69, has taken tens of thousands of photos over the past 40 years, chronicling life in the old industrial heartland of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces. An exhibition of Wang’s work was a feature of the recent 17th China Pingyao International Photography Festival.
The region enjoyed decades of prosperity until the late 1970s. A campaign led by the central government in 2003 helped it regain some steam. However, since 2013 it has been fettered by a legacy of central planning.
“The old heavy industries made tremendous contributions to New China. Numerous workers gave their lives to the cause. We should remember that,” Wang said.
Born into a family of miners in Liaoning, where most of his photos were taken, Wang has a special bond with those who made their living underground. “My grandfather, father and sisters all worked in the mines,” he said, and many of his photos depict life and death in the mines.
A picture from 1983 shows the Haizhou coal mine, which opened in the 1950s and was Asia’s largest open colliery at the time. The mine used the most sophisticated technology available, with all machinery imported.
By the 1990s when many heavy industries were struggling, some mines were closed and workers laid off. A picture shot in 2003 shows a former miner from Haizhou raising sheep. “Many workers became street vendors or did other manual work. They understood what had happened,” Wang said.
High-polluting, low-tech, inefficient factories in northeast China began to be phased out around 2005.
In 2016, the central government began a new effort to rejuvenate the area through industrial restructuring. It hopes to develop the region into a base for advanced equipment manufacturing and raw materials.
During the past year or two, Wang’s shots have depicted how the goal is being attained — new production lines for high-speed trains, cars and robots.
In addition to radical changes in the region, those things that remain unchanged impress Wang.
“After leaving the shaft, what miners did for leisure was smoking, showering and drinking. That has never changed in all these years,” Wang said.
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