Crowds and the influence they have on one's visual awareness

See photos for a visual of this at the bottom.

In a recent conversation on my friend Kay Kendall photo site on flickr about a photo she posted of a friend of hers of Chinese descent, and the friends dreams as a young girl ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkendall/3458742400/) I said the following:

This is such a thought-provoking quote and photo .... for this is one of the things that fascinates me most about this awesome country and this gentle culture: constant crowds and the psychological influence of these on the individual - and eventually on the whole culture.

Arriving in China from Africa, a place drowning in space, it did not take me long before I started wondering about the effects of incessant crowds on one's psyche. From personal experience and from speaking to expat friends having lived here for an extended period of time, I have found that constant crowds do have definite influences on us. First to be affected is one's visual awareness, ie, is one aware of one's surroundings or does one "switch off" to one's surroundings in order to survive mentally. Most expats in China I have spoken to have told me that their visual awareness has decreased with time as simply switching off becomes a kind of a defense mechanism. Personally, when out on a pavement (without my cam, lol), I have found that my own visual awareness has decreased to as little as one foot in stead of the previous dozens of meters! The reason is simple: for most of the time one simply can't see any further than a few feet ahead in any case, so I guess the eyes just stop looking .... An amazingly interesting field of study, with China the perfect laboratory. My local students and I often talk about this, and those having lived abroad for some time absolutely agree with me on these inter-related themes. Two last thoughts on this: do not confuse spatial awareness with visual awareness as, somehow, spatial seems to be far more primordial ... and, how about this for a thesis, "How crowds influence visual awareness and how visual awareness influences culture" ?
Well, many a conversation were generated on Kay's photo, both in response to my and to others' comments, but Kay came back with something that made me think ... She said, " I see it as a PICTURE book."
That made me delve into my photos of the last two months to get some recent ones of this phenomena - crowds. Hopefully some of the following will give you an idea of what I meant when I said crowds in China makes it impossible for one to plan ahead or to think about the next corner. It is just in your face, almost constantly.

A few weeks ago, with camera held above my head in Yu Yuan Gardens. Try planning a route through this .....



Two days ago on the corner outside our apartment. SPOT THE BRIDE in the crowd ....



Also, two days ago, going into the park, camera at chest height.



In the park, from a vantage point about 60cm / 2 feet above the crowd



Chest height, walking amongst a crowd .... how do I plan to go ahead?


Chest height, exiting the park. Again, how does one plan for this? No wonder one stops looking ahead and planning - eventually simply stops planning for anything. What will be, will be ....



Exiting the Yu Yuan, again, held above my head walking / pushed on by the crowds ....

Age in China

Today is a public holiday in China, so for once we do not have to work. Bliss. Utter bliss !!!

We grabbed the opportunity and went for a photo reccie and picnic in the park to celebrate a sunny day with James, our photography friend we met via flickr, his absolutely lovely and sweet wife Amy (originally from Mongolia) and Amy's 17 year old daughter Kelly.

This Mom and daughter two-some are so photogenic together, and I could not resist taking several photos of them.

Kelly doing the bubble thing ...

Mom taking a video ...



And them sharing the video ...



Whilst taking these photos, as I do, I also wondered about the cultural story I was photographing. Taking these photos of their shared joy, I again ended up comparing cultures, amazed at the differences between teens here and teens in the West !

What 17-year old in the West would be sitting with a teddy, blowing bubbles for mommy and looking like she is 12? No wonder everybody in America thought China's Olympic gymnasts were underage. However, young Kelly here really is the standard for local kids - in fact, if a kid
here "looks his age" it is very, very strange.

On this same topic: a real story story from one of my 16 y/old students who recently returned from 2 years of High School in America, showing how we are viewed here:

When I asked her what the strangest / most interesting experience was for her, she said that on day one of her going to school in America, she was sitting in class and she saw all these parents coming into class and sitting down. She kept on wondering why she was the only child in class ... until the teacher walked in and started teaching .... only then did she realise the "parents" were actually the other kids in her class.

Happy Birthday da Mama

Been a hectic week, so only getting time to post this now. Sorry, Da Mama.... but at least we did send these to you on time!

On Sunday night we went out with some of our fellow expat friends to say goodbye - again! - to someone leaving our circle of friends, and privately also to celebrate da Mama's birthday. For those of you who do not know da Mama (Janine), she is the lady responsible for giving birth to my husband, Mau - the lovely, way-too-kind, beautiful soul filled with both joy and wisdom; the lady Mauro is kissing on the photo above. The nickname "Da Mama" comes from the Italian heritage of "Da Papa".... even though Janine is as African-born as Mau and I.

We blew up one of the photos Mau took of her last year this time when she visited us for her 60th, and took it with. Mau quickly roped in all to pose with da Mama.

On the photo above, fltr are: Old Man Rob (Aus), Alex (Br), Gailan (US) , Bret's friend visiting from America, Bret (saying goodbye to him - USA), Joy (Singapore, whose mother chose her name perfectly), Joy's friend, Mauro, Olga (our loveliest girl from Russia) with new teacher Ant and her husband from England.



Phillip (UK) , Joy, me, da Mama and mau. Told you I do not like that side of the camera.

On the way back home on the subway, he roped in two youngsters on the train with us into posing with her again.



Happy 61st, Janine. Enjoyed taking you out on the town again. Maybe next year we can do it in person?