Photographs and textLaura Mate

XXIstCENTURYCHINA GIRLS

H A L F T H E S K Y

I dedicate this book to the women of Beijing,

I feel truly honoured to have met and been welcomed into the lives of so many colorful characters.

Huge special thanks to…

For Support : Ahmed, Brigitte, Mum & Dad

For Advice : Renaud, Tikka, Aurelie, Nick, Berry, The Travers

For Help :Jean-Jacques, Anna-lisa, Kenwyn, Zhou Xingyue, Zhang Lin, Mei, Laurence, Qi Jing, Conor

For Lodgings & Kindness : Rowan & Paul

Graphic Design and Types :Jean-Jacques Tachdjian

2

Mao Tse-Tung famously and frequently announced the words “ Ban Bian Tian ”, trans-lated into English as “Women Hold up Half

the Sky”, during his leadership of the People’s Republic of China (1943-1976). However, it wasn’t until the Communist Revolution of 1949 that this actually came into play.

I learned that under 1,300 years of the Imperial system the role of women rarely extended beyond the satisfaction of men’s desires. Emancipation was a distant dream in most regions of the country. The new regime brought an abrupt end to traditional practices affecting women, such as foot-binding and the use of concubines. Finally, women had the right to formal education and were at liberty to seek work in the same way as men.

Fast-forward some 60 years to my arrival in Beijing in 2005, where I discovered that one of China’s wealthiest entrepreneurs is now a female. Zhang Yin, who boasts a personal wealth measured in billions of US dollars, is not only her country’s richest woman but rumoured to be the richest self-made woman in the world, ahead of even Oprah Winfrey and JK Rowling.

Shortly after my arrival I found myself sharing a cosy apartment with three charming Chinese girls. I was on a mission to learn Mandarin, hang out with their friends and experience the real Beijing. We would chat, cook for one another and laugh long into the night, often astonished by the cultural differ-ences between our countries.

I was intrigued and contented to hear that the girls were brought up on absolutely equal terms to boys and told they were equally important to society. Both parents and school pushed them hard, with a view to going on to higher education, establishing careers and working until late retirement. If babies arrived, they would be raised mainly by their grandparents while their parents would continue in full time employment to bring home a double salary.

Another thing that intrigued me was the preference that young modern women still had for traditional Chinese medicine, over Western chemical cures. The chemical drugs were readily available but it seemed traditional methods were still favoured when it came to matters of health. It wasn’t unusual for me to come home and find a witch’s cauldron of foul-smelling herbs bubbling away on our stove. This strange alchemy could produce extremely effective cures.

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Half the sky

Once, when suffering from severe tonsillitis, my flatmates insisted that I try to eat and drink a bizarre concoction of duck egg and boiled Chinese plums. Incredibly, the pain and swelling subsided and my faith in natural remedies was estab-lished and continues to this day.

The girls were a constant source of joy and inspiration, coming from different provinces and social backgrounds. Beijing was their common ground for the dream of a modern and more sophisticated life. They revelled in freedom and the dispos-able incomes denied to their parents, but also shouldered the burden of their families’ expectations. They rejoiced in being single, had no plans to marry young but concentrated on building careers and finding love.

I was born in 1979, the year that former Communist leader Deng Xiaoping introduced the compulsory one-child family planning policy. I found it fascinating to listen to the expe-riences of my peers, a generation of children raised without sibling rivalry. In fact, many benefited from the undivided attention of their mothers and fathers, plus two sets of doting grandparents.

I was fortunate to land in the midst of an unprecedented explosion of creativity, as China threw off the chains of isola-tionism and opened its doors to Western influences. Working as a photographer, I gradually started to meet many Chinese women working in the creative fields: avant-garde photogra-phers, radical clothes designers, artists, punk and rock’n’roll musicians, DJ’s, animators, illustrators, film directors… I could go on. Unheard of careers and new work opportuni-ties were arising from this demand for modernity and higher living standards, churning China’s traditional ideas for indus-try and lifestyle up side down.

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While the city of Beijing was having its own facelift, the arrival of Western chain stores, foreign businesses and glossy life-style magazines began reflecting the rise of a new, aspirational middle-class. Luxury brands showcased to a population of 1.3 billion, long starved of retail opportunities, who were last year estimated to have spent 6 billion US dollars on luxury goods.

The new generation’s exposure to the internet, foreign media and international travel has created a hunger for the trappings and lifestyle of the West. China’s youth have had to deal with a surge of outside influences, this influx of Western modernity combined with displaced traditions has left its young struggling to forge a new identity. Older Chinese, raised on a save, save, save culture find the capitalist philosophy hard to fathom and the pace of change remarkably hard to keep up with.

When I finally returned to Europe in early 2008 I had a period to reflect on what I had seen and learned in Asia. Through all the change I’d witnessed in Beijing, I realised it was the young women who had digested and most rapidly taken on appropri-ate roles of the new China.

I was passionate, and felt it necessary to return to Beijing, to complete a photographic documentary project of what I’d seen, learned and loved about the modern Chinese Beijing woman. I interviewed the ambitious, the exotic and those with more simple dreams from both rural and urban backgrounds. I found their stories equally fascinating, whether they were planning business empires or waiting on tables. I wanted to honour this generation of women and tell the stories of young girls who had shown terrific courage in making truly epic journeys from rural provinces to seek their fortunes in one of the world’s most dynamic, pulsating capital cities.

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china6

XINJIANG

TIBET

QINGHAI

SICHUAN

INNER MONGOLIA

GANSU

YUNNAN

NINGXIA

SHAANXI

SHANXI

GUIZHOU

GUANGXI

HEBEI

HENAN

HUBEI

GUANDONG

HEILONGJIANG

JILIN

LIAONING

SHANDONG

ANHUI

JIANGSU

FUJIAN

ZHEJIANG

JIANGXI

BEIJING

HUNAN

CHONGQIN

SHANGHAI

TIANJIN

china7

Pg 6-7 Qi Jing - Home province : JIANGSU

Pg 8-9 Guo Xiaohan - Home province : HEBEI

Pg 10-11 Tang Na - Home province : LIAONING

Pg 12-13 Han Hongxia - Home region : INNER MONGOLIA

Pg 14-15 € Fang Fang - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 16-17 You Ya - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 18-19 Zhu Xuan / Lucy - Home province : GANSU

Pg 20-21 Wu Lan Tuo Ya / Ulan - Home province : XINJIANG

Pg 22-23 Zhang Hainan - Home province : HEILONGJIANG

Pg 24-25 Zhang Yu - Home province : HUNAN

Pg 26-27 Lu Xuanlan - Home province : ANHUI

Pg 28-29 Xu Pan - Home province : HENAN

Pg 30-31 Elysee Yang - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 32-33 Feng Haining / Helen - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 34-35 Song Danxi - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 36-37 Zhang Yueran - Home province : SHANDONG

Pg 38-39 Zhang Huan - Home province : HENAN

Pg 40-41 Li Li - Home province : SHANDONG

Pg 42-43 Zhu Lian - Home province : SICHUAN

Pg 44-45 Meng Shengnan - Home province : GANSU

Pg 46-47 Li Mei - Home province : HEBEI

Pg 48-49 Fang Fang - Home province : YUNNAN

Pg 50-51 Duan Xuying - Home province : GUIZHOU

Pg 52-53 Linda - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 54-55 Annie Yu - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 56-57 Shi Mingjie - Home province : LIAONING

Pg 58-59 Wen Na - Home province : GUANGXI

Pg 60-61 Qin Linfang - Home province : SICHUAN

Pg 62-63 Zhang Ting - Home province : SHANDONG

Pg 64-65 Luo Yan - Home province : GUIZHOU

Pg 66-67 Dong Dong - Home province : HEBEI

Pg 68-69 Zhou Xingyue : CHONGQING MUNICIPALITY

Pg 70-71 Zhang Qiu Chan - Home province : SHANXI

Pg 72-73 Datou : CHONGQING MUNICIPALITY

Pg 74-75 Ning Jing : XINJIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

Pg 76-77 Guan Shengsheng : XINJIANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

Pg 78-79 Wang Qian - Home province : JIANGSU

Pg 80-81 Cui Zhongcheng : TIANJIN MUNICIPALITY

Pg 82-83 Yang Qian - Home province : QINGHAI

Pg 84-85 Li Hua - Home province : JIANGXI

Pg 86-87 A Fei - Home province : ANHUI

Pg 88-89 Jean Weng - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 90-91 Xiong Hongju - Home province : HUBEI

Pg 92-93 Na Na - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 94-95 Ding Na - Home province : SHANXI

Pg 96-97 Liu Xin : TIANJIN MUNICIPALITY

Pg 98-99 Liu Ding - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 100-101 Qian Fang – Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 102-103 Zhang Kejun - Home province : ANHUI

Pg 104-105 Dina - Home province : FUJIAN

Pg 106-107 Chen Jingwen - Home province : JILIN

Pg 108-109 Liu Junli - Home province : HEBEI

Pg 110-111 Zhou Yanxia - Home province : GANSU

Pg 112-113 Zhang Zhou - Home province : SHANXI

Pg 114-115 Ai Wan : SHANGHAI MUNICIPALITY

Pg 116-117 Minghua - Home province : HUNAN

Pg 118-119 Zhang Lin - Home province : SHANXI

Pg 120-121 Wu Qiong - Home province : GANSU

Pg 122-123 Guan Nan Jiang / Stella - Home province : SHANDONG

Pg 124-125 Chang Lixin - Home province : JILIN

Pg 126-127 Han Jingjing - Hometown : BEIJING

Pg 128-129 Fang Lei / Cici - Home province : ZHEJIANG

Pg 130-131 Zhao Wei - Home province : LIAONING

Qi Jing, an ambitious, business-minded artist, arrived in Beijing (BJ)

two years ago and has already invested time and money in a successful

Belgian bar in the city.

Jing originally studied advertising at the Capital University of business

and economics, and works part-time as a production assistant for a

local television station.

As well as keeping an eye on the bar, and her part-time TV job, Jing has

recently gone back to school to study animation design. She has just

been accepted into a top art school in San Francisco to complete her

Master’s degree in the subject.

She continues to keep an eye out for business opportunities and aspires to

become a full time animator working within the creative film industry.

Age : 27, in a relationshipHome province : Jiangsu

Animation student, Bar ownerand TV production assistant

Qi Jing

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9

Guo Xiaohan is a very active journalist and poet in Beijing youth

culture scene.

After her graduation from university in west China, she fol-

lowed her rock and poem dreams, to come to Beijing.

She now has a good job, a house, a husband and a rock band

whom she plays bass for. (with three other media background girls).

Xiaohan spends her days running round the city, to meet and

interview the most interesting and talented Musicians, Writers,

actors and Artists for Beijing Youth Weekly magazine.

Xiaohan is a panda maniac, her collection of pandas is enor-

mous, half presents from friends and half collected herself. She

says in herself, she feels like a panda, Sad, quiet and not really

interested in sexual activity.

Age: 26, marriedHome province: Hebei

Journalist for youth magazine

Guo Xiaohan

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11

Age: 30, in a new relationshipHome province: Liaoning

Dance choreographer

Determined Tang Na has had a passion for dance ever since she was a

tot, and a dream to live and work as a dancer in the city of Beijing.

Na studied dance in vocational school in Dalian her hometown and

after working as a performer for two years she was able to save up

enough of her own money to pay for a course in a renowned Beijing

dance college.

Penniless and ambitious Na moved to the city six years ago and after

completion of her course, has been working her way up the ladder as a

professional choreographer.

She feels Beijing has many new openings, but is extremely competitive

when looking for a decent job. She tells me that you have to be pre-

pared to work all given hours to succeed in her profession.

Na says it’s a special feeling to have come so far, all on her own. Her

biggest achievement has recently been to direct one of the dance

scenes for the Beijing Olympic closing ceremony.

Tang Na

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13

14

Young but mature, Han Hongxia has been in Beijing for six years

all on her own and working in retail.

It was just one year ago she took on the challenge of opening her

own small business, a rented shop in the Beijing hutong, an area

with narrow alleys running between the typical old style court-

yard homes. In her sliding glass fronted general store, Hongxia

sells everything from slippers and padlocks to kitchen soap and

fizzy drinks. She says she is always busy because hers is the only

shop like it in this residential area.

Hongxia is a charming girl with wit. She tells me she has the

advantage of being born with a business brain and always has her

eyes open for an opportunity in the market. She says there is no

time for socialising, and that she is far too busy preparing her new

stock and keeping a good rapport with her customers.

Her mother and father live far away in her hometown and work

with the family’s farming business. They encouraged her to go to

Beijing to take advantage of the new times and knew her strong

personality would keep her afloat.

Age: 22, singleHome region: Inner Mongolia

Proprietor of small general store

Han Hongxia

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Age: 30, marriedHometown : Beijing

DJ

Fang Fang, a fashion conscious and feisty young

woman, studied sound engineering at Beijing Uni-

versity.

After graduation she began working as a DJ in

many of Beijing’s bars and clubs. Fang Fang buys

most of her music online from America and

Europe. She says she feels responsible to introduce

the best old and new foreign and Chinese music to

Beijing youth.

Streetwise Fang Fang says she doesn’t just follow

the commercial trend but tries to play an eclectic

mix of what she considers quality and fun music.

Her greatest achievement was being DJ at The

Great Hall of the People, on Tiananmen Square,

for an evening dedicated to the top five hundred

Chinese companies. The event was organised and

attended by many government officials,

Fang Fang

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I met You Ya, a local Beijinger, at a creative day workshop for

artistic women to meet. The theme was carpe fish, with the task

to decorate any material of your choosing. Some painted carpe on

shoes and bags and others sketched in notebooks. Chinese flower

tea was on the menu and introductions were made.

Ya’s delicate pen drawing (depicted in the photo) of a little girl shar-

ing a body with a fish is actually the kind of thing she does to

make a living. She is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer.

Ya says she feels contented and at peace to be working within the

creative world and that she was lucky to have her parents’ support

when it came to making her career decision.

She believes that parents are becoming more and more open

these days, allowing their children to make independent decisions

regarding their futures. Ya says most parents have only had the

opportunity to produce one offspring and the child’s happiness

should really be their first priority.

Age: 24, singleHometown: Beijing

Illustrator and graphic designer

You Ya

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Age: 23, Single Home province: Gansu

English language consultant

Zhu Xuan arrived in Beijing three years ago, looking for

work after graduating from a charity school in her home

province. She was taught computer science and English by

American volunteer teachers at the school in Gansu.

Xuan found her first job as a receptionist in a language

training company. She tells me there at the office she really

had the chance to polish her English and save a little money

to send on to her family. After a patient couple of years of

hard work and practice, Xuan decided her English language

was probably good enough to look for work at a renowned

English learning centre. Nervously she took the interview,

she got the job, a large increase in salary and she now has

two of her own assistants.

Zhu Xuan

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Age: 30, SingleHome province: Xinjiang

Poet, painter, music composer and chief editor for online store

Wu Lan Tuo Ya - Ulan

Ulan, the name she has given herself (a mixture of her

first two names), arrived in the city ten years ago to start

her ethnic studies degree at Beijing Central University.

At the same time she taught herself fluent English.

A delicate wistful artistic being who spends her spare

time writing poetry, painting, composing and going to

see local folk musicians performing.

To support her city living, she works as editor in chief

for an online products company. She tells me she finds

the work dull and unfulfilling and that she does not

plan to spend her whole life working there.

Ulan’s dream is to go back to university to study Mongolian

history and language, the roots of her family tree. She is

looking for love, marriage and to have a child.

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Age: 19, singleHome province: Heilongjiang

Employee in hair salon

Zhang Hainan

Zhang Hainan left the sub arctic climate

of her hometown in northeastern China

to arrive in the capital two years ago on a

mission to find work.

Currently she has found employment at

this hair salon as an apprentice, learning

the art of perming and dying.

Hainan tells me she loves the sounds and

pace of city life and has met many other

young people who have also left their

families in far off provinces to try their luck

here in Beijing.

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25

Age: 26, singleHome province: Hunan

Amateur photographer and boutique employee

Zhang Yu

Graceful Zhang Yu, a passion-

ate amateur photographer,

photographs me as I photo-

graph her at work. She works

as an assistant to another busy

woman, her boss, who runs a

retro furniture shop and cafe

in Beijing.

Yu is learning the tricks of the

photography trade from a pro-

fessional photographer friend.

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27

Age: 35, marriedHome province: Anhui

Proprietor of vegetable shop

Lu Xuanlan

Lu Xuanlan has been in Beijing for six

years, running her business and prepar-

ing a home for her family to join her.

She opened her vegetable shop in a busy

residential area of BJ and has now made

enough money to support her 12 year old

son. He has recently joined her from his

grandmother’s house in Anhui province

and has just started a good Beijing school.

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29

Age: 19, singleHome province: Henan

Proprietor of market photo shop

Petite businesswoman Xu Pan relocated to Bei-

jing one year ago with her parents who came to

find work. Since her mother and father both

found full time employment they have recently

invested in her idea to open a small photo shop

in a popular BJ market.

She owns a photo machine, which takes groups

or single fun themed miniature portraits and

develops them as stickers or prints. Pan says she

occasionally has promotions and encourages

friends to catch a moment on camera.

She tells me she prefers life in the capital city

and thinks her parents were wise to move here.

Xu Pan

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31

Age: 34, marriedHometown: Beijing

Fashion designer for her own label

Elysee studied costume design at university, but did not walk

directly into the industry. A couple of years after graduation,

and not yet working in the fashion world, she decided to

leave for Paris, the capital of haute couture to further her

studies in design. She completed her course and burst back

onto the scene in Beijing, bringing her fresh design ideas

and new materials. She loves to use Christian Dior and other

exotic fabrics she imports from France.

China is said to be the world’s factory, a land where every-

thing and anything can be produced or bought. Today

though, Elysee believes there is more and more demand for

beautiful, expensive European imported goods.

Elysée Yang

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33

Age 30, in a relationshipHometown: Beijing

Radio show anchor and vocalist in two rock bands

Helen is one of the most loved female rock musicians in the

city. Her band ZIYO and new band Pet Conspiracy both

have cult following in the Beijing rock scene. People used to

compare her live performances to Karen O from the Yeah,

Yeah, Yeahs.

Helen left China for LA when she was just two, and didn’t

return until after she graduated from university in the States.

She moved back to Beijing because of a job offer from MTV,

which she quit not long after, hungry to pursue other proj-

ects. At this moment she has a rock show at HIT FM radio,

two bands and a music TV show at CCTV. Helen tells me

in the future, she would like to be a good label owner and a

documentary director.

Feng Haining/Helen

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35

Local girl Danxi has worked in this

pharmacy for three years (depicted in

the photo).

She saves half her salary each month in

preparation for her trip around China.

She tells me it’s important to explore

the rest of her country, to inspire her-

self and help her decide what she really

wants to do with her life.

As for love, Danxi says young Chi-

nese women really don’t need to rush

these days and she has no intention

to be in a marriage without the feel-

ing of true love.

Age: 22, singleHometown: BeijingPharmacy employee

Song Danxi

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Age: 27, singleHome province: ShandongProfessional writer

Zhang Yueran

Confidently feminine, Zhang Yueran is the representative female writer of her

generation. She has won many awards in the past few years.

She moved to Beijing because of the literature scene and friends here. Her way

of writing is very sensitive and thoughtful.

Yueran has had her typical Chinese apartment decorated in a luminous French

country style. She lives there alone with her three cats and works with a bunch of

creative women (who are constantly calling round during our meeting). Yueran

and her crew of creative friends periodically publish books concerning the psy-

chological and social problems that their generation has in common.

39

Age: 24, singleHome province: Henan Employee in nail salon

Shy, pretty Zhang Huan from Henen province works long

and exhausting hours in this Beijing nail salon (depicted in

the photo), from 11am to 12pm seven days a week. A normal

day’s work for her consists of soaking up to thirty clients’

feet in warm rose petal water, giving them a pedicure and

finally a manicure in the chosen colour of vanish. Huan says

they take it in turns to leave the salon at lunchtime to pick

up their noodles from the takeaway shop next door.

She says the owner provides a dormitory where all the girls

sleep together in bunks. Huan tells me they are like one big

family and have lots of fun, but the down side is they have

no free time to enjoy the city or do things in private.

Zhang Huan

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41

Age: 19, singleHome province: Shandong

Employee at fruit stall

Li Li

Li Li sells these huge juicy watermelons like hot

cakes in the summer months, she says, eating them

on these humid days is an ideal way to keep cool.

Li tells me she lost both her parents at a young age

and had been living with her elderly grandparents

in Shandong. A couple of years ago she felt it was

the right time to leave and begin her own life, so

she had headed by train to Beijing.

Li tells me she has worked at this same fruit stall

since her arrival and that she knows all the neigh-

bors in this residential community.

She says she is happiest when working and her only

wish would be to bring her grandparents to BJ.

42

Li Li

43

Age: 19, singleHome province: Sichuan

Employee in cake shop

Zhu Lian

Young, timid, Zhu Lian excitedly arrived

in the city only a couple of months ago and

tells me she is very happy to be in Beijing.

She is in the middle of her training course

in decorating birthday cakes, alongside her

new comrade Wang Zhili, another young

working girl from a far away province.

Lian has an aunty here in the city that she is

living with right now, but she says herself,

Zhili and a friend of hers have plans to find

a little apartment to rent together.

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45

Age: 27, singleHome province: Gansu

TV Presenter

Sophisticated Meng Shengnan fell for Beijing

during her studies in broadcasting at the Com-

munication University of China. After gradua-

tion she found work as a hostess on a CCTV

(China Central TV) music channel.

Shengnan loves the glamorous side of the busi-

ness, she explains she gets to choose stylish

clothes to wear and have her make-up done

professionally. As for the future, she wants to

continue working on air and hopes to rise to

celebrity status.

Meng Shengnan

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47

Li Mei arrived in Beijing to seek her fortune as a

model just one year before, in July 2007. She has an

agent and already several catalogue contracts with

big Chinese fashion brands.

I photographed her outside of her favourite Mon-

golian hot pot restaurant down a street lined with

red lanterns that never sleeps. This typically shared

(“low fat”, she says) feast is cooked and eaten from a

huge bubbling pot already on the table and heated

by what looks like a Bunsen burner. Mei tells me

the restaurants open 24 hours down this street, and

are always brimming with customers. If ever she

feels lonely she takes a walk down here.

Age: 25, datingHome province: Hebei

Model

Li Mei

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49

Age: 24, singleHome province: Yunnan

Employee of art gallery

Fang Fang is an employee at a gallery in the Beijing

community art area known as Dashanzi Art Dis-

trict, originally 798 factory (an old industrial fac-

tory area, turned into galleries and studio spaces).

She herself is an aspiring artist and so prefers to

surround herself with this particular atmosphere.

Fang tells me Chinese contemporary art is of great

interest to her as it mirrors the conflicts between

old and new, traditional and modern, East and

West and the continuing search for identity.

Fang Fang

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Fang Fang

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Age: 37, marriedHome province: Guizhou

Proprietor of newspaper and magazine shop

Duan Xuying

Bubbly, chatty Xuying has been in Beijing for ten years and has wit-

nessed huge changes in the city and its inhabitants. She says the skyline

has completely changed, with all the new skyscrapers erected and many

old ones and local homes torn down. She also talks about the huge

increase of foreigners like myself who have arrived in the city and says

that before she came to BJ she had never set eyes on one. Xuying says

the city seems to have taken on a new personality, people becoming

more impatient and a generally faster pace of living.

She tells me her business selling magazines and newspapers is interest-

ing because it keeps her in touch with all the new trends and fads that

her child goes crazy for.

Xuying tells me each month there are so many new women’s Chinese

and foreign fashion magazines appearing on the market. She says they

all get bought up by the younger generation who seem to have plenty

of money to spend.

Her daughter joined her in Beijing five years ago from her grandparents

in Guizhou. Xuying enjoys busy life in the capital and is happy her

child has the chance to study here.

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Age: 20, singleHometown: Beijing

Spanish student and part time employee in furniture shop

Linda is a fanatic of everything Spanish, hence her study of the

language at Beijing University and Flamenco Dance classes.

She admits she is slightly obsessed with Latin culture and she

dreams to some day move to Madrid.

She works part-time at this traditional Ming and Ching style

furniture shop to fund her life at university.

Linda

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Age: 26, singleHometown: Beijing

Music studio manager

Annie Yu

Annie is a well-traveled, fluent English

speaker and a confident young woman who

graduated in broadcasting from Beijing

University.

Her job requires great organisational skills

and a cool and calm demeanor to meet with

and plan many musicians’ recording sessions

at this international Beijing studio.

Annie expresses her feelings of how

wonderful it is to be a young woman in

Beijing right now. Originally planning to

relocate to Europe before realising, Beijing,

her birth city, was actually the place to be.

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Age: 35Home province: Liaoning

Beijing Women’s College teacher

Shi Mingjie completed her English language bachelor degree in

Dalian Language University, before being hired as an English teacher

in Jinzhou University, where she remained for nine years. Still hungry

for education and also eager to arrive in the capital city, her next move

was to Beijing Women’s College to take her Master’s.

Mingjie tells me she fell in love with BJ and also working amongst so

many interesting and well-educated women. She was offered a job as

a teacher at the college, so she decided to stay.

She became actively involved in researching the female education sit-

uation in China. She explained to me that female education chances

are now pretty much equal to males, but when it comes to finding

work there are still injustices and men typically dominate the higher

salary positions.

Alongside teaching, the ambitious Mingjie is currently studying for

her doctorate degree.

Shi Mingjie

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Age: 24, singleHome province: Guangxi

Employee at Xidan clothes shop

Wen Na

Wen Na crossed China, from the far south to the

top north, to arrive in the city she had been dream-

ing of since childhood. Na has been in Beijing for

two years and works full time in a clothes shop in

the busy bargain shopping area, Xidan.

She tells me even though she left all her family in

the south she is very happy to have found work and

a little apartment for herself here in the capital. Na

says she feels proud to be independent, but she also

has one more dream; to fall in love with a local man

and get married here in the city.

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Age: 29, marriedHome province: Sichuan

Restaurant employee

Qin Linfang has been in Beijing for three years with her

husband. They both work extremely hard and long hours

within the service industry.

Their six year old son is living with his grandparents a long

distance away in their home province of Sichuan and in

the last three years they have only seen him once. Linfang

explains to me that travel is so expensive and they came to

Beijing for one reason only, to make and save money. They

both miss their child desperately, but it is only a temporary

situation and in the end it will benefit them all.

She says they plan to work in Beijing for just one more year

and then they will return to Sichuan and live as a family

once again.

Qin Linfang

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Age: 24, datingHome province: Shandong

Taekwondo teacher

Beautiful, willowy Zhang Ting is a Taekwondo teacher

recently graduated from Beijing Sports University,

being one of only ten girls out of three-hundred Tae-

kwondo students.

She was so inspired by the female Olympic champion

Chen Zhong in Athens 2002 that she decided to make

it her own major.

Ting now trains children in Taekwondo in Haidian, the

University district of Beijing, at the same time she needs

to fit in her own twenty hours of training each week.

Ting says it is physically very demanding, but she feels

it’s important for women to continue to represent this

ancient sport. She says work opportunities are still not

equal between male and female Taekwondo teachers.

Ting feels that the respect and status of Chinese women

as sports coaches still has a long way to come.

Zhang Ting

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Luo Yan is originally from the Miao ethnic group. They have

a population of around nine million and form one of the larg-

est ethnic minorities in southwest China. Most of them live in

tightly knit communities; they have more than five thousand

years of history and their own language.

Luo independently came to Beijing to study in the Central Uni-

versity of Nationalities and quickly became established in the

city. She began working as a manager of a pornographic mobile

text company. A couple of years later she was headhunted by the

boss of a huge mobile service provider corporation. She took the

move and a relationship started with her new boss. They are now

happily married, with a newborn baby girl.

Yan and her husband have a typically upper-middle class lifestyle,

but still believe in very traditional family values. They invited

both sets of parents to live with them in their modern townhouse

in central Beijing and they employ a full time nanny and cleaner,

so they can both continue building their business empire.

Age: 27, marriedHome province: Guizhou

Telecommunications entrepreneur and mother

Luo Yan

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Age: 32, singleHome province: Hebei

Artist and proprietor of gallery

A young bright-eyed Dong Dong first arrived in the city at

the age of twenty to study design at Beijing University.

After graduation and determined to make money, she began

her own advertising agency. Her company thrived, but five

successful years down the line she sold the business. Dong

Dong felt unfulfilled and decided to return to her art and

design roots, where she would specialise in photography and

sculpture.

From her latest works (depicted in the photo) Dong Dong

demonstrates the modern Chinese woman’s lifestyle. This is

influenced by modern materialistic society, but also a desire

for a quiet and peaceful life, shown by the frequent appear-

ance of Buddha. She explains in detail, as China has devel-

oped and opened up to outside influences young people

have lost their traditional connections, causing widespread

loss of identity.

The exhibition of these works has already travelled to Paris,

Berlin and Milan. Dong Dong tells me she feels at peace

with her work and life now.

Dong Dong

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Age: 27, single Home region: Chongqing Municipality

Music magazine editor

The lively, bright spark, Xingyue, whose name literally trans-

lates to star and moon, studied journalism at the university

of Chongching before going on to complete her Master’s

degree in public communications in London.

Xingyue’s break was due to her self-confidence and absolute

determination. Her desperation to work alongside her hero,

Hao Fang (a highly respected and well-known music critic and

editor in chief of Rolling Stone magazine China), drove her to

move to Beijing, call him up and insist on an interview. She

has now been working alongside him as an editor for two

years, meeting and interviewing outstanding musicians and

artists from around the globe.

She is a warm, fun, witty and streetwise character, the kind

of girl who would make a perfect best friend in the city.

In 2007 Xingyue started the all girls band The Big Heads, or

the JT4’s, and she is the lead singer. She says she feels most

alive either when performing with her girls on stage or when

interviewing one of her favourite rock stars.

Zhou Xingyue

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Age: 20, singleHome province: Shanxi

Employee in porridge restaurant

Baby faced Zhang Qiu Chan came to Beijing on her own six

months ago, her mission purely to make money. Her salary

is two thirds higher as a waitress in the capital then it is in

her hometown.

Qiu Chan says her plan is to return to Shanxi as soon as

she has the knowledge and sum of money she expects to get

from her city job. She says she is getting plenty of experience

and ideas from working in this big chain. Qiu Chan works

along side ten other girls more or less the same age and also

from various regions of China. They have long work hours

but the time passes fast as they find ways to amuse each

other.

At twenty years old, Qiu Chan seems to have such a mature

attitude. She tells me secretly she is saving every spare penny

so she can open a restaurant with a family member back in

Shanxi. She says in China it is expected that the child will

help support their retired parents, hence her business plan.

Zhang Qiu Chan

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Age : 24, singleHome region : Chongqing Municipality

Website editor and guitarist

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Datou arrived in the city of Beijing six years ago to study. She

says the best part of being in the capital is to have found and be

with her kind of people. Her closest friends are the three other

girls that make up the all girl band, The Big Heads, whom she

plays guitar for.

Datou studied Italian and completed her degree at Beijing Uni-

versity before becoming an editor for a leading entertainment and

commerce website.

She says there are so many new opportunities in Beijing these

days that you really have a chance of living your dream. Whether

it’s starting a business, finding work with a huge Chinese or for-

eign company, or working as a freelancer.

Datou says she has become restless working with the same com-

pany and feels it would suit her best to explore more flexible free-

lance based work in the future.

Datou

Age: 27, single

Home province : XinjiangRadio station DJ and drummer

Ning Jing

Seven years ago, Ning Jing left her hometown in the far west

corner of China. She travelled thousands of miles on coaches and

trains before reaching her final destination, Beijing.

Jing studied broadcasting at Beijing Communications Univer-

sity and after graduation found work at China Central radio

station as a DJ.

Jing has been working in radio for five years, playing a mix

between Chinese and Western music. She says she feels excited

for the future status of Chinese musicians, and that there is so

much new talent in Beijing alone.

Also a skilled drummer, she plays in the all girls band

The Big Heads.

Jing likes the relaxing life, she takes things in her stride, preferring

to keep things light and not overly stressful.

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Age: 32, married Home region: Xinjiang autonomous region

Freelancer TV producer and visual artist

Guan Shengsheng has her own studio, a young child, a dog,

and her French photographer husband who all live in there

together.

Shengsheng moved into her 7 metre high, 200 metre square

studio last year after saving hard in her previous job at a film

production studio. She says her vision is more vivid under

tall ceilings, where she feels free.

Shengsheng quit her job in the film industry so she could

start working freelance with some local TV stations. She is

now producing China’s only gay web show called “Queer as

Folk Beijing”.

She is also busy in her studio producing sculptures and visual

art works on canvas and other materials.

Shengsheng looks after her baby at home while she works.

She says a mother should always try and combine the two.

Guan Shengsheng

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Age: 24, single Home province: Jiangsu

Novelist

Shy and dreamy Wang Qian is a poetic kind of writer, she

writes and sells her novels in Beijing.

She tells me she is nearly always in the mood to write, but

the location of where she writes changes frequently. She can

be found working in the park, cafe, library and other times

she will lock herself away in her apartment.

Qian decided to move to the capital several years ago to be

engaged with other young creative talent and find folk she

had more in common with.

Here in Beijing she has met many colourful characters who

inspire her imagination. She tells me her mind now feels

freer to create.

Wang Qian

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Cui Zhongcheng has her own record label, which she started just over

a year ago. Her label represents talented, rising and established Chinese

folk musicians; they also plan and organise live shows in Beijing.

When Zhongcheng first arrived in the city to study seven years before,

her big brother supported her. He had his own successful record label in

Beijing, which Zhongcheng worked with on and off for six years.

They both had different ideas about the business and so finally she

decided to end their working relationship and create her own label with

two friends.

Zhongcheng became a Buddhist in early 2007 and she now feels her

life and work run in a much more harmonious rhythm.

Age 25, single Home region: Tianjin Municipality

Proprietor of a folk music, record label

Cui Zhongcheng

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Age: 29, married Home province: Qinghai

Restaurant manager

Yang Qian

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Pretty and softly spoken Yang Qian has been in Bei-

jing for eight years and worked as manager of the Red

Restaurant for three of them (depicted in the photo).

She is married to a local man and has a son of six

years old.

Qian tells me she appreciates the life in the city because

her family’s living standards are so much higher. Also

she says life is more interesting and varied than her

previous life in the Gansu countryside.

She says her goal is to save up enough money to open

her own cake shop in BJ. She would make and sell

six tier iced Western wedding cakes and fancy themed

birthday cakes.

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Age: 27, singleHome province: Jiangxi

Consultant

Li Hua

Li Hua, sitting pretty and pale with her large green umbrella in the

scorching heat (Chinese women in general find the idea of bronzed skin

quite horrific, associating it with the common outside worker), has already

been in Beijing for six years on her own, working as a consultant for a

local marketing company.

Hua tells me a familiar story; she left her family and friends far away

in her southern hometown to find new opportunities for work and her

own independence in the capital. She says although she isn’t in a rela-

tionship the buzz and vibrancy of the city keeps her company.

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Age: 22Home province: AnhuiMarket stall employee

A Fei

A Fei has only been in Beijing

for a couple of months.

She works tedious hours at this

market stall (depicted in the

photo) selling glittered jewellery

pieces for the hair. She shows

me how she barters with her

clients to obtain good sales. She

is fast, furious and certainly has

the knack.

A Fei says she basically grew

up in a market, clinging to her

working mother; hence her

acquired sales skills.

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Age: 38Hometown: Beijing

Architect

Jean Weng has sixteen years experience of architecture under

her belt, including projects across China, as well as in Australia

and New Zealand. Weng studied architecture at a Beijing Uni-

versity, before emigrating down under for fourteen years. She

relocated to Beijing three years ago and began working with

this international firm (depicted in the photo). This company

is one of the firms responsible for Beijing’s facelift, modernis-

ing the outlook of the city. Her key roles are master planning

urban design and architectural concept design.

Jean Weng

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Gift shop proprietor Xiong Hongju has been in Beijing for eight years,

she met her boyfriend three years ago and they opened their flower and

gift shop two years ago.

She tells me business is steady right now, but its ok because the feeling

to own their own small company is so great.

Hongju says they are desperate to get married, but that would bring

too much financial pressure for them both, which they couldn’t

handle right now. Getting married for them means they would have

to support two families, both sets of parents that are living in dif-

ferent hometowns.

Age: 26, in a relationshipHome province : Hubei

Proprietor of flower and gift shop

Xiong Hongju

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Age: 26, datingHometown: Beijing

Interior designer

Na Na, an interior design major, worked as chief designer for the

international broadcast centre of the Beijing Olympics after graduation.

Young and creative, Na decided she would be better suited working with

a contemporary company and found a job at one of the city’s newly

opened Western-fashion chains. She is in charge of the window design

for all three of the Beijing shops.

Na tells me that in recent years there has been a strong trend for Chinese

university students to travel abroad to study, allowing for more cross-

cultural exchanges. She says she is already planning her next move, which

is to go to Europe to study fashion.

Na Na

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Age: 24, singleHome province: ShanxiMechanical engineer and model

Ding Na

Ding Na was only eighteen when she apprehensively first arrived in Beijing to

study mechanical engineering at Beijing University. After graduation and a little

older and wiser, Na’s new found love of city living meant she would stay on to a

build a life for herself in the capital. On the one hand she is a party girl relishing

the new energy of BJ, on the other she is a serious engineer currently working

for a large automation company.

Na tells me her love is not engineering but in fact modelling and acting, which

she does part time. Her degree in engineering was only to guarantee herself a

great salary. Although Na has the skills to design car gears, she admits she would

much rather be walking down a catwalk.

Her dream for the future is to complete her Master’s degree in Europe or the US,

have her own entertainment company and be a successful actress in Hollywood.

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Age: 33, marriedHome region: Tianjin Municipality

Silver jewellery designer

Liu Xin is a very warm and creative character, she came

to Beijing ten years ago to study design at university.

After graduation she began specialising in the design

of silver jewellery and teaching herself the elements of

the craft. This became Xin’s love and she decided to

make it a full time job. Half a year later she took a leap

of faith, renting her own workshop and investing in all

the necessary tools.

Ten years on and she is the owner of three stores in

Beijing, two in another province, and now has inter-

national clients through her website.

Xin is extremely pleased that her husband is a modern

thinking man, as he quit his job to help her expand

the business. He is concentrating on the marketing of

their brand.

Liu Xin

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Liu Ding was working as a marketing direc-

tor in a foreign company for almost five years

before deciding to take the plunge and change

her career direction. Ding says she was fed up of

working the 9-5 and felt driven to work within

the world of creativity.

She began her training course at a make-up

college and has since been working freelance

for four years. Contacts from her previous

work helped her find clients in the beginning

and now she’s working with many high profile

media groups.

Ding tells me that women’s roles have changed

incredibly fast since her mother’s generation.

She says the first most important thing for a

woman to do is show her value in society, after

this comes marriage and a family. Ding explains

though that this is kind of contradictory,

because the older you are in China the harder

it is to find a husband. She says it’s a good thing

that divorce has become easier to obtain, so if

the woman is not happy in her married life she

has the right to end it.

Age: 31, singleHometown: Beijing

Makeup artist

Liu Ding

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Young Qian Fang is a first-year student of journalism at the

Communications University of China (CUC), a leading university in

the mass media field.

She tells me young women in Chinese cities are nowadays encouraged

to become independent and to indulge their energy in a career of their

choice. She feels blessed to be 21 years old in 2008.

Fang an expressive, individual young woman is full of dreams and

hopes for her future as a journalist in the new China. She is keen to

develop China’s international role and wants to see her country have a

greater presence on the world stage. Fang has already decided that after

graduation she will remain in Beijing, to benefit her own country. She

believes it’s a very exciting time to work in Chinese journalism and

perhaps in a big TV station.

Age: 21, singleHometown: Beijing Journalism student

Qian Fang

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Age: 29, engagedHome province: Anhui Hair stylist

Zhang Kejun has been working as a creative hair stylist for 11 years.

She has been fortunate to travel with her career, working in provinces

all over China and a couple of large African cities.

Aware Beijing was entering an exciting but also competitive period,

Kejun wisely found work with a renowned French hair salon before

making the move here, one year ago.

Relaxed and seemingly stress free, Kejun says she feels at home in Bei-

jing. She has a large community of Chinese and Western friends and

recently got engaged to her French boyfriend.

She says she loves what she does and is hungry to launch her own salon

in this fast paced capital city.

Zhang Kejun

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Age: 30, marriedHome province: Fujian

Runs a family tea business

Dina

Dina has been in Beijing for five years with her husband and six year

old son. She is charming, laid back and very optimistic of the future.

Together with her family she runs two teahouses in Beijing. They grow

the tea in the fields of their hometown in Fujian and sell their scented

yields here in the capital.

Dina tells me life is good, they all work hard, but also spend as much

time as they can as a family.

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Age: 22, singleHome province: Jilin

Drama student

Chen Jingwen

Chen Jingwen is a senior student in the Beijing Academy of the-

atre, her studies in drama and acting are what she lives for and

her dream is to become a famous movie star in China.

Jingwen says she visits this nail salon (depicted in the photo)

opposite her university to have a foot massage and manicure

after a long day at school.

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Age: 19, singleHome province: Hebei

Hotel gate guard

Liu Junli

Little Liu Junli arrived in Beijing just the day before I photographed

her and this has been her first day at her big new job.

She explains a friend from her hometown, who is also employed here,

introduced her to the post at this hotel.

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Age: 18, singleHome province: Gansu

Waitress

Zhou Yanxia

A young, shy Zhou Yanxia arrived in the bustling Beijing metropolis

for the first time two days ago, (June 20th 2008) after an exhausting 32

hour train journey. She came alone, leaving her family and familiarity

in search of new chances and better-paid work.

Lucky and courageous, Yanxia found this waiting on job (depicted in

the photo) the day following her arrival, after asking around at local

Beijing street restaurants. She explains her curiosity is keeping her

homesickness at bay, and she is excited to explore her new surround-

ings on her day off.

Yanxia says the owner of the restaurant has treated her very kindly, like

her own daughter. She will not get a chance to visit her family until the

next national holiday, which is spring festival, next year February.

Her work provides her with a dormitory to sleep, food, and a salary that

she can afford to send half home.

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Age: 24, singleHome province: Shanxi

Freelance illustrator

Zhang Zhou

Zhang Zhou has been in the city for five years. She studied art at Bei-

jing University and now works freelance as an illustrator, her clients

coming from different publishing companies.

Zhang tells me she is a modern and cosmopolitan girl, enjoying many

aspects of foreign cultures, Western and otherwise, but this does not

in anyway lessen the pride in her own. She tells me she would always

choose traditional Chinese medicine over others and is adept at callig-

raphy and ancient painting techniques.

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Age: secretHome region: Shanghai Municipality

Actress and entrepreneur

Ai Wan, who didn’t let me in on her age, is certainly a very

attractive and groomed looking lady. She was born and raised

by her grandparents in Shanghai until 1987, when she was

sent to Los Angeles to study in a private middle school. After

completion of her schooling in the States and with a passion

for acting, she decided to enroll in a course at the California

Movie Academy. She continued actor training (comedy and

drama) for a further four years with Aaron Speiser in Hol-

lywood’s UCLA film school. She played roles in a number of

movies, including Rush Hour alongside Jackie Chan.

In 2004, Wan made the decision to re-locate to the exciting,

rapidly modernising Beijing, where she opened EPIC, an

entertainment and design company.

With her American vision and influence from the LA high

life, Wan felt it was the right time to introduce something

unique to the Beijing nightlife scene. In 2008 she opened

the largest superclub in the city and christened it Chinadoll

(depicted in the photo). It’s an all in one venue with eating,

drinking and dancing, which can only be described as a

kitsch fairyland.

Ai Wan

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Age: 35, marriedHome province: Hunan

Childcarer

Minghua

Minghua moved to Beijing four years

ago in search of childcare work, before

this she had worked in a computer

company in her hometown. She had

felt unfulfilled and had decided it was

time to invest in a career change.

Minghua has been working as a nanny

with this French family (depicted in

photo) for two years. Her main job is

taking care of two youngsters.

Her love of children motivated her to go

back to college and take a study course

to work in professional childcare.

She tells me she feels worthy and ful-

filled, helping to bring up these kids

and that she speaks to them only in

Chinese, which they already under-

stand.

Minghua hopes her profession could

someday take her to Europe or Amer-

ica to work.

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Zhang Lin was born in Yangquan, a very polluted city, rich in

coal and thriving on its heavy industries.

Lin dreamed of getting away from her hometown even when she

was a kid, so she studied hard and got the chance to go on to

higher education.

After graduating in English in northeast China, Changchun city,

she finally arrived in Beijing to seek work opportunities and a

new and exciting life. Lin says she loves the diversity of the city,

and how everyday brings unique chances and meetings.

She works at a headhunting and recruitment company for foreign

professionals, speaks great English and loves her work with for-

eigners, whom she feels are polite and respectful.

Lin tells me her next plan is to take her Master’s degree at a uni-

versity overseas. She would like to study luxury brand manage-

ment.

Age: 24, in a relationshipHome province: Shanxi

Recruiting and headhunting for foreign professionals

Zhang Lin

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Playful Wu Qiong is crazy about the vintage look and has intro-

duced the style as a new trend in the city.

Qiong’s main job is editor for an online e-business service pro-

vider and it’s after work hours that she concentrates on building

her own business.

Qiong opened her online vintage clothes store early in 2008, and

already has a good following with regular growth in the number

of her clients.

She buys her second hand garments from different outlets in

China, a lot of the clothes coming from Japan.

Qiong usually uses herself as her own mannequin, using her tripod

to take the photographs in her diverse colorful vintage styles.

She is lively, innovative and has a great eye for design and colour,

I guess these are the reasons she has already been interviewed by

numerous BJ lifestyle magazines and her handpicked business has

taken off.

Age: 24, singleHome province: Gansu

Proprietor of online vintage clothes store and e-business editor

Wu Qiong

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Age: 22, datingHome province: Shandong

Sales and marketing manager

Stella, as she likes to be known, moved from China to

Sweden, with her family when she was just four, growing

up and spending most of her childhood there. It wasn’t until

she turned fifteen that the family decided to move to Bei-

jing for business opportunities. Back in China but with little

memory of her mother tongue, she decided to study Man-

darin at university. She is now fluent along with her Swedish

and English languages.

Stella works in the sales and marketing department in her

father’s renewable energy company. She regularly travels

back to Europe with work and tells me she can only do this

because of her language skills.

Stella says her future plans are to start a business in the media

sector, setting up her own magazine company. She would

love to work with high profile photographers and journal-

ists, where freedom of speech and real stories would be the

order of the day.

Guan Nan Jiang/Stella

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Guan Nan Jiang/Stella

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Chang Lixin is a very small girl, but owns a very big metal music venue

in Beijing. She came to Beijing because of its rock scene and fell in love

with a rock musician. Lixin and her lover invested in the club three

years ago and they run and manage it together.

She goes to work at 8:30am to give children piano lessons and comes

back to the club around 8:30pm to start preparing for the night shift,

which ends about four or five in the morning.

At the moment, Lixin’s hectic life means that she sleeps in her club. Her

work hours are extreme, and her sleeping arrangements not ideal. She

tells me she will move into her apartment as soon as she has finished

decorating it.

Age: 29, in a relationship Home province: Jilin

Proprietor of a rock venue and piano teacher

Chang Lixin

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Age: 27, in a relationshipHometown: Beijing

Nail salon proprietor

Han Jingjing had no interest in school; it was fashion and

beauty that appealed to her from a young age. She is a quiet and

beautiful young lady, she tells me she is in a serious relationship

with her high school boyfriend and soon they will be married.

Jingjing says she waits for her boyfriend’s return from studying

in Canada. However, she herself has no desire to travel abroad

and feels best when she is in Beijing, near her family.

Jingjing, with the help of her father, opened her first nail salon

as soon as she finished high school and four more followed. Her

salons offer manicure, pedicure, massage, facial and chocolate

beauty treatments.

She tells me that Chinese woman now have money to spend on

beauty and looking after themselves, hence the reason her busi-

ness and number of salons are growing so quickly.

Han Jingjing

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Age: 24, single Home province: Zhejiang

PR manager for website and Beijing IT girl

Fang Lei was born in Zhejiang province, but together

with her family relocated to the States when she was just

a young teen. Lei chatters away in English with her Ameri-

cano accent. Lei completed her high school education and

then graduated in journalism in America, before returning

to China in 2005. She tells me she had heard Beijing was

the new place to be in China with all its new openings and

brand new cosmopolitan feel. So, “voila, here she is”.

Lei works in one of the city’s new towering, glossy skyscrap-

ers as a senior PR manager for a young online interactive

web community site.

Apart from working hard on weekdays, Lei also works hard

partying on most evenings. Sporting her glamorous clothes

and jewels, she has made it as a real Beijing IT girl and is

always the photographers’ centre of attention at fashionable

glitzy Beijing parties.

Lei plans to start her own enterprise, combining business

with glamour, in the not so distant future.

Fang Lei/Cici

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Age: 32, marriedHome province: Liaoning

Homemaker

Zhao Wei

Zhao Wei moved to the city of Beijing eight years ago to work as a

planning researcher for a real estate development company. She met her

American husband through her job and they have been married for two

years. Wei tells me they often talk about setting up their own business

together in China.

Currently Wei concentrates on her English lessons, yoga classes and

keeping a lovely home. She says there is a possibility that she may need

to move to America with her husband in the future, but she would be

happy to try living somewhere new again.

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Anonymous

Pancake Girl

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British, London born photographer

Laura Mate most recently lived and

worked as a freelancer in Beijing.

Among her clients were Rolling stone &

Elle magazine China.

She has a background in Art & Design

and Photography both studied and prac-

ticed in the UK.

Currently she is working and resides in

Paris.

www.lauramate.com

ÉDITIONS / PUBLISHING

48, Rue Léon Gambetta - 59000 - Lille - Francelaniche@lachienne.com / www.lachienne.com

136

ISBN 978-2-9535052-4