I never tire of this photo, snapped in rural Henan Province, probably in 1984 or 1985. Someone had taken an old bus and turned it into a small shop. It was a common sight at the time. A one-stop shop for cigarettes, sodas, and candy.
Friday Photo: Washing the Fire Truck
In the mid-1980’s I taught at a small college in Zhenghou, Henan Province. Our school was next door to the local fire station and we loved watching them wash their trucks out on the street. And yes, you are seeing that correctly — they are pointing that hose INTO the truck. Must’ve all been plastic […]
The Henan Famine
During my first year in China (1984), I lived in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province. Before getting my assignment to teach there, I don’t think I had ever heard of the place and pre-internet, it wasn’t easy finding out information. I remember, though, stumbling across a book about the city that had been produced […]
The Great Moon Cake Exchange
One last moon cake post..a slightly edited reprise of something I wrote a few years back: Today is Zhong Qiu Jie, (lit. Mid-Autumn Festival) in China. In colloquial terms, it’s called the Moon Festival, because it’s celebration coincides with the full moon. Much like Thanksgiving in American culture, Moon Festival is a time when people […]
Reading a Book
This is another in my occasional series of photos from my early days in China. Most are a stark reminder of how much things have changed. This one is the opposite; in fact it could easily have been taken this week in an urban or rural village. It was taken in 1984, probably somewhere in […]
