Hoop, Dreams

There are several China blogs concerned with explaining the unique facets of Chinese factories. But as useful as these resources are, I’ve yet to come across one that’s has anything to say about what I consider THE distinguishing characteristic of Chinese factories: namely, the large dreamy Chinese landscapes (waterfalls and mountains, preferably combined) typically found near the factory front gate or the largest spare wall of the production floor. Below, a highly representative example of this unusual art, taken on Saturday behind the front gate of a plastics plant in rural northern China (click for an enlargement).

In my travels I’ve found that factory landscapes are not restricted to acrylics, only; quite often they’re executed as re-touched photographs (typically faded in the sun) or even done in tile. And, more often than not, they are utterly out-of-place. For example, the image above is located in a polluting facility in one of the most environmentally damaged regions that I’ve encountered in any country; the only thing that this painting has in common with the surrounding landscape is the past. Anyway, I’m going to make a point of starting to post these factory landscapes. At the same time, if my readers have any that they’d like to share, I’d be happy and honored to post them, as well [update 6/22: I think it was less than clear that I made this request somewhat facetiously. So, on the off-chance that anybody has such photos (very off chance), I’d be interested in seeing them, but I’m unlikely to post them. Good reminder not to try to be subtle when exhausted.] I’ll take just about anything, but preference is for shots – like the one above – that place the landscape in the context of the actual manufacturing facility.