The Beijing Ginkgo Charity Foundation and photographer Wang Shendun are collaborating on projects aimed at people who solve social problems. In the 5-year-long shooting operation, Wang Shendun usually spends a week or so with a partner, recording the daily work and life of Ginkgo partners in different fields with documentary photography, and presenting their actions to solve social problems in the form of images. This plain recording process not only left them with precious moments, but also gave them confidence and support.
Among the 12 ginkgo partners photographed by Wang Shengdun, 3 were Selected: Nyima Wengdui, who provides services to visually impaired children in Tibet, He Jixian, who inherits the Naxi Dongba culture and promotes the development of natural villages, and Ma Yanwei, who realizes ecological protection and sustainable development of agriculture and animal husbandry. Their concerns about vulnerable groups, traditional culture and ecological environment are also themes that cannot be avoided in each of our daily lives, and their actions may bring us new thinking.
01
Nyimaondui: Blindness is my trait
I was born in Ganzi, Sichuan, and now live in Lhasa, Tibet. I am completely blind, and I am really unable to introduce the photos. Then talk about my success
Long story! I was blinded by illness 3 months after I was born, my father died at 4 months, and my mother eloped with someone at 7 months. Raised by grandparents since childhood. My grandmother taught me to memorize the scriptures, to gain wisdom and practice in life from the scriptures, and told me that "in the future, when I live on the streets and beg for food, I will recite the scriptures and people will give me more." Grandpa taught me verbal calculations, horseback riding, and fighting, and told me that "I can't see, and I can't let people bully every day."
Later, I had the opportunity to study at the "School for Blind Children in Tibet" jointly run by Braille Without Borders and the Tibetan Disabled Persons
Computer, English, Tibetan Braille and other courses. Then study in the United Kingdom and study in the United States. The school for blind children made me understand that in addition to chanting, blind people also have a way out of study and work.
After returning from school, I returned to the school for blind children and took up the position of English teacher and principal. For nearly 20 years, the Tibetan School for the Blind provided 150 blind children with the necessary basic education and entrepreneurial skills training. Some students have been trained to study in ordinary schools and college, and some children have started blind bands. The children in these photos are currently interning at the Lhasa Institute of Continuing Education in Tibet.
Many people may think that "Nyimaon pile is invisible and pitiful", but this may not be the case. I think blindness
It's my trait, not my flaw.
In 2017, at the Tibetan School for The Blind, children eat in the cafeteria and Nima Ongdui stands in the doorway holding her two-year-old daughter. Photo by Wang Shengdun
In September 2017, Nyima Ongdui, the principal of the School for The Blind in Lhasa, Tibet, was working in his office. Photo by Wang Shengdun
At the Tibetan School for The Blind, Sangdan, who is over 6 years old, is studying Braille and is now studying at the Special Education School in Lhasa, Tibet. Photo by Wang Shengdun
At the Tibetan School for The Blind, Danzin Dolma is extremely amblyopia and can only be seen a little at very close range. Photo by Wang Shengdun
At the Tibetan School for The Blind, Tashi Tetsumi is a low-vision child who is learning bright-eyed characters. Photo by Wang Shengdun
Tibetan School for the Blind, boys' dormitory, just get up in the morning, the children prepare to wash and breakfast, and then go to class. Photo by Wang Shengdun
At home in 2017, Nimaon was lying in bed taking a nap while his wife, who was also blind, was changing her daughter's diaper. Photo by Wang Shengdun
Tibetan School for the Blind, Nima Ongdui and children. Photo by Wang Shengdun
02
He Jixian: Returning to tradition is also an innovation
I am from Lijiang, Yunnan Province, and I am engaged in the inheritance of Naxi Dongba culture in a Naxi village in the Jinsha River Valley. 16 years ago
As a rural youth who returned from the provincial capital, I joined a village self-organization initiated by my grandfather and several elderly people in the village, "Wumu Village Dongba Cultural Transmission Institute". I can't remember how many things happened in the past ten years, but I found that the old people around me had gone a lot, and in 2010 I was pushed by the old people to the position of the head of the organization, and at the same time I began to serve as the village Dongba this year. (Dongba is the Naxi name for traditional religious clergy, meaning wise men, who usually shoulder a variety of responsibilities such as religious ceremonies, writing, and doctors.) ）
In the context of the era of strong impact of mainstream culture, under the traditional cultural inheritance style, our culture seems to be more and more untransformed
The cultural heritage of some ethnic minorities is an important issue related to how their nationalities continue to exist. Integrating culture into life is the best inheritance style, and once culture leaves life and enters the museum, it becomes a cultural relic.
In the Jinsha River Valley, which has been dry for ten years, ancestors preserved rich seeds in response to extreme climatic conditions, and these rich species resources are integrated with the Dongba culture of the Naxi traditional polytheistic worship, which is an important embodiment of the core values of Dongba culture. We have rediscovered the old seeds that are on the verge of being lost, and in five years, we have found more than 140 traditional old varieties of seeds from the local tradition, and begun to protect the environment and inherit the culture. I collected a lot of information in the cultural inheritance of the village for more than ten years, retrieved the traditional wisdom of the village to cope with natural disasters and climate change, and began to write the village history, and my dream for many years finally had a beginning.
2018 was an important turning point in my life: finding the other half of my life, having a "little cotton jacket", establishing a farmer's seed library, etc., and the ideas of many years began to become a reality. With the support of partners and family members, we also began to try to carry out village cultural inheritance and seed protection based on the village's own summer camp. The inheritance of culture is not a work that can be completed in a few years, which requires time and patience to wait like the promise of the elderly, to accompany the old people of generations, to accompany the growth of generations of new people, I have a lot of people can not have the happiness in their lives.
Seed preservation is truly a science, and the traditional experience of mixing seeds of different natures is the most effective. Photo by Wang Shengdun
This is the family's main field, rented to the tobacco farmers a few years later, inflated the tobacco farmer's pockets, and thinned the land on which they depended for survival. Photo by Wang Shengdun
More and more children are going out to study, and it is not easy for the children who stay. Changing the children in the village requires patience, patience, and patience again. Photo by Wang Shengdun
During the drought, the villagers were mobilized to weave willow branches and dragons to pray for rain, and to ask for a timely rain that comforted the soul. Photo by Wang Shengdun
Blowing bamboo pipes to pray for rain and greet the gods of nature. Blowing bamboo pipes that seem to be manual work is actually learned! Photo by Wang Shengdun
The pepper seedlings are about to bloom, how to transplant without water? Photo by Wang Shengdun
The photographer came from Beijing to take pictures of me, and I was grateful. Photo by Wang Shengdun
03
Ma Yanwei: Improving desertified land with ecological agriculture
During a volunteer activity during my graduate school years, I formed an indissoluble relationship with Alxa and chose to take root here after graduation to live a "farmer's life". I have an ecological farm in Alxa that grows some water-saving crops that are suitable for the local area and uses ecology
Agricultural ways to improve desertification of agricultural land. Farms grow crops such as melons, millet, sweet potatoes, etc., and we also hope to test successful crops on our own farms, which can be promoted to local farmers, so that farmers in Alxa can protect desertified land without affecting income.
Many people are easy to romanticize the countryside or farms, but in fact, it is not easy, not to say that they work hard in the field, but also to consider practical problems such as market sales. Of course, living in nature is still relatively happy.
In addition to managing my own farm, I often go down to the pastoral areas of the Alxa Desert to learn about the herders' herding life, and in the winter, help the herders sell their free-range cattle and mutton. Compared with agricultural areas, pastoral life is obviously more comfortable, but it is also necessary to be able to withstand loneliness.
I like this half-farming, half-pastoral life, doing something of social value, and enjoying it myself.
I was tying a bracelet to a sheep, and later saw that the Xiaomi bracelet data was more than one marathon per day. Photo by Wang Shengdun
Go to your friend's hometown of Alxa Left Banner Hash Hassumu, in the depths of the Tengger Desert, there are still large areas of reed grass, nature is really magical. Photo by Wang Shengdun
Drive my pickup truck down to the pastoral area, follow the progress of the herders' grazing, take pictures and receive signals, sometimes need to stand on high places. Photo by Wang Shengdun
Sweet potatoes that had just been dug up from the farm were packed in the office with colleagues and ready to be sent to various places. Photo by Wang Shengdun
In autumn, herders need to beat more grass and feed the lambs in the winter. We finished cutting the reeds in the desert and loading the trucks. Photo by Wang Shengdun
About the Author:
Wang Shengdun is an independent photographer. Reuters, former Associate Editor-in-Chief of Asia Pacific Pictures and Chief Photojournalist for Greater China, Former Director of China Press Photo and Chief Photojournalist for Greater China by Getty Images, Former Member of the Nomination Committee of the World Press Photo Contest (Holly), Jury Member of the 1998 and 2003 Dutch Competitions.
*Article from China Photographer Magazine, Issue 10, 2020, Photo/ Wang Shengdun.
Edited | Fan Ermu
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