Work to Live:Capturing Workers' Moments of Joy

According to an apocryphal story about the late Qing dynasty(1616-1911),the formidable Empress Dowager Cixi invented the practice of smiling for the camera circa 1903.When Yu Derling,the empress's French-educated lady-in-waiting,brought back a camera from abroad,the empress believed that the smoke-emitting contraption could steal a person's soulso to get her employer to smile.

公共场所“留宿”进化史

From migrant workers seeking refuge to budget-conscious tourists,public sleeping in China reveals a tapestry of urban social dynamics公共场所“留宿”演变:从“无处可去”的农民工到海底捞过夜的游客In the early hours of the morning,Majuqiao’s streets remain lively with bright neon lights from restaurants,internet cafes,and old-fashioned bathhouses.In a poorly lit stairwell,a man sits huddled,sound asleep,while a group of men gather on the sidewalk in an intense game of Chinese chess.

Editor's Letter

Beginning new projects and making changes at the start of a new year may be cliche,but the start of 2023 is significant in several ways.First,for the first time since the pandemic began,people in China can travel freely around the country and even abroad.It is also a season of change for TWOC,starting with what you've doubtlessly seen is the new look of the magazine.

深入云南怒江,探“人神共居”之处

Yunnan’s remote Nujiang region is home to an old Christian community,an abandoned government outpost,and a permanent tableau of hanging clouds云南怒江游记:走进“人神共居”之处The Salween River thunders below me,sending sprays of brown water against the giant boulders.As I look up and see waterfalls bursting out of cliff faces one after another,as if the mountains themselves can’t contain their might.

MALE COSMETICS GAIN GROWING ACCEPTANCE IN CHINA

When Alibaba founder jack Ma challenged "Lipstick Brother" Li jiaqi to a live-streamed cosmcticsselling contest last November, no one was surprised to see the male beauty vlogger win by a landslide, selling out 15,000 tubes of lipstick in under five minutes.

THE CHANGING FACE OF YINGGE DANCE

The ghosts are gone from Puning today,but that doesn’t mean the locals don’t relish a chance to play heroes.Yingge(英歌),written with the charactersfor“hero”and“song,”is a typeof folk dance with 300 years of history from the Chaoshan region of Guangdong province.It evolved from the sacrificial Nuo opera(傩戏)performed in various parts of southern China to welcome the spring,dispel evil spirits,and pray for good fortune.

OFF THE LEASH

>Dog ownership in China is booming,but finding inclusive spaces for animals remains a tall order in most cities Ever since Su Shan adopted Tangdou,a miniature poodle puppy weighing around 4 kilograms,just over a year ago,she feels she has"said goodbye to most forms of public transportation."That s because in Qingdao,the picturesque seaside city in eastern China’s Shandong province where Su lives.

BY THE SEA

Summer is here,and with travel abroad still curtailed due to the pandemic,domestic tourists are flocking to China’s 18,000 kilometers of coastline.But the seaside isn’t just a place to catch some waves and snooze on the sand-it’s also home to about 20 percent of China’s population,many of whom depend on the sea for their livelihoods.Photographer Xin Ting,from the seaside city of Shantou,explores his fascination with the sea and all the ways that people live,work,socialize,and dream by the coastline.

PADS UNAVAILABLE

A female passenger on China’s high-speed rail faced abuse online for suggesting trains should sell female sanitary products onboard, inspired by an awkward experience on a recent journey when she had to ask for a menstrual pad from a train attendant.

The Bo people's ancestor worship traditions live on

Blood consecrates the ritual.When the Bo(僰)people of southwestern China honor their forebears,blood is used not just as an offering for the deceased,but as a symbol of their ancestral bond-and a reminder of the violence that had nearly severed it.Oficially classifed under the Yi ethnicity,the 7,000 Bo of Qiubei county,Yunnan province,claim to be the last descendants of an ancient people who may have been exterminated in the l6th century.First recorded in today's Sichuan province over 3,000 years ago,the Bo were successful merchants before the Silk Roads existed,and were noted for entombing their deceased in"hanging coffins55 on high cliffs facing the sunas close to the heavens as any mortal could reach.

Editor’s Letter

If the pandemic has contributed anything,it’s the acceleration of data and"smart"technologies in China.Here,we grudgingly accept mandatory health code scanning as a fact of life,but most of us don’t think twice about scanning a code to order inside a restaurant;or are even glad to avoid having to touch a physical menu,or make awkward small talk with the server.

SOUNDS OF THE VILLAGE

Whether it’s a wedding or a funeral,a graduation or a New Year celebration,no social gathering in rural China is complete without the village band.Often consisting of the suona reed pipe,the gong,and other traditional(and Loud) folk instruments,village bands face declining Livelihoods as people migrate out of the countryside and seek more modern entertainment.Yet "musicians play from the feelings of the heart," says photographer Huang Ruide,whose series showcases how village musicians continue to serve as a bedrock of rural life.

BAMBOO BOUNTY

“Lovely bamboos cover the north and south mountains/There's green as far as the eye can see./We set off with hoes in twos and threes/And return sated on the shoots we eat,”goes Wang Mulan’s“Shimen Bamboo Poem”from the late Qjng dynasty,describing a yearly pastoral scene of bamboo-picking in late spring.

MARKET VALUES

China is embracing its thousands-year-old"street stall economy,"once considered an eyesore in the city,as a symbol of post-pandemic recovery.In Guangzhou,photographer Huang Ruide joins the fun with vendors,artists,buskers,bargainhunters,and window shoppers,who are all thronging the streets to pick up their lives after months of lockdown.

PAINT THE TOWN

An isolated village in the mountains of southern Anhui has long attracted painters for its bucolic setting and centuries-old homes-and the fight is on to keep it that way. Photographer Meng Qingchun captures fleeting moments of daily life and quiet reflection during a reprieve from tourists brought on by Covid-19, and wonders what the future holds for the community。

ACTS OF FAITH

"Whether or not you believe in it,faith is all around us,"says Huang Ruide,who has been photographing folk beliefs in Guangdong province for a decade.Located on the country’s southeastern coast,Guangdong is one of the most avidly spiritual parts of China.Huang’s native Chaoshan region,encompassing the cities of Chaozhou.

RIDDLE OF THE SANDS

"There is a beauty in the North, matchless and unmatched; one glance from her felled a city,another glance felled a kingdom"goes "The BeautySong,"a famous Han dynasty (206 BCE -220CE)ballad composed by court musician Li Yannian in the second century BCE.

CHINOSISERIE CHIC

Eighteenth-century Europe’s fascination with Chinese kitsch中国土豪对'欧陆风'喜爱有加,其实,18世纪的欧洲贵族也曾对'中国风'有过相似的狂热When it comes to taking stock of an era’s bad tastes,satirists are usually right on the money.The'Continental Europe wind'(欧陆风)style that has been blowing across China’s world of design since at least the late 1990s—spawning'copycat'

VINTAGE VALUES

In a country where buying second-hand items has long been synonymous with poverty and 'imported trash,' these young collectors and entrepreneurs are determined to raise the status—and price tag—of vintage fashion

ROOTS AND REMEMBRANCE

In southeast China,long-held memories,stories,and even properties still await those who’ve gone abroad to seek their fortunes.Join the descendants of these overseas Chinese as they return in search of the ancestral keys to their family history