Lao Ann photography. (Photo/Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
Lao An, 62, has been living in China for 40 years.
In 1981, André Cavazuti, a "small-town youth" from the small town of Kalpi in northern Italy, came to China to study and decided to stay here. In the past forty years, most of the foreign friends around me have come and gone, and the mentality of tourists and the psychology of passers-by, only Lao An, has regarded this place as a habitat for the future. Except for the first two years of brief returning to China for military service and completing his master's thesis, Lao An has hardly left China for long, and he laughs that he has spoken more Chinese than Italian.
In the early 1980s, Lao An went to Fudan University to study, and he took a Nikon 35mm SLR to shoot everywhere, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Xiamen, Quanzhou, Qingdao, Sanya, Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing, Henan, Beijing... Corners of China's cities and towns were photographed by him. Some of the thousands of photographs were collected into the video work "A Little Rest: China from 1981 to 1984". Yu Hua wrote in the album's recommendation: "Lao An's photos are precious memories for our generation Chinese. In this black-and-white photograph, which is quiet or active, we see how our past selves have broken free and carefully moved towards a real life."
In the 1990s, Lao An became one of the first foreign employees hired by multinational enterprises in China, and after work, he took up a camera and aimed the camera at the active figures in the literary and art circles in Beijing at that time, Wang Xiaobo, Cui Jian, Hong Huang, Jin Xing, Fang Lijun, Li Xianting... He recorded the interviews with them and made them into three 20-minute short films, called the "Beijing Trilogy", which became a precious image of that fiery era.
After accumulating wealth and no longer worrying about survival, Lao An resigned to make documentaries, films, theatrical multimedia, and also filmed commercial propaganda films for many projects; he was the first foreign guest of BAIC's "First Car Rental Company", and he started his life of driving "on the road" early, witnessing the completion of the highway from scratch and section by section.
Lao An always said that he was born at the right time, and his 40 years in China coincided with the rapidly changing gears of the country. Lao An's story is also a Chinese narrative under the great changes of the times.
Before coming to China, Lao An studied at the University of Venice in the Department of Chinese Chinese Andethology. It was 1978, and the students of the Chinese in Italy added up to more than twenty, Chinese was a rather unpopular major.
Lao An's curiosity about China began with hieroglyphs. "How can anyone communicate with this kind of thing?" It can also be used to speak and write articles. "He opened the map of the world, and China was so big, but he didn't know anything about it.
In 1981, Nanjing University organized a summer Chinese language study class, and Lao An applied for this two-month study opportunity. Armed with a SLR camera, he set foot on Chinese soil for the first time. "China is a new world for me, I don't have a choice, I shoot everywhere." He told Southern Weekend Reporters.
Children playing in the fields, teenagers climbing chimneys, girlfriends who meet and play in the park, and plastic models displayed in the window are all his subjects. In the corner of Nanjing Park, three young women talked and laughed, one of them said while giving a friend a haircut, Lao An felt quite like an ancient lady; after a while passing by a fashionable woman wearing a polka dot dress, the three immediately paused to laugh and looked at the woman from head to toe. Both moments were captured by Lao An's lens and included in the "Rest" album, which was interesting. "I can feel from them that a new era has really come, and before that, Chinese generally dressed very simple and simple, but this woman has been dressed very fashionably and has pursued fashion." Old Ann said.
In 1982, by applying for a scholarship, Lao An came to China again and began a two-year study abroad career at Fudan University. He eagerly took pictures and recorded the daily life of ordinary Chinese.
On the streets of China in the 1980s, a foreigner held up his camera to the crowd to shoot, "only disadvantages, no advantages," Lao An recalled. For example, when he walks on the crowded Nanjing Road, as long as he stops, he will immediately be watched by curious tourists, causing him to be unable to shoot at all. Later, he found a way to often put on a tripod and not move for a while, and the onlookers slowly lost interest from the initial curiosity, and he began to shoot.
Rather than the street, Lao An prefers to shoot grocery stores, commissaries, and playgrounds, which he calls "a place like an open-air stage", where people get together in pairs and it is easy to catch shots with a breath of life. "In the past, everyone lived in bungalows, the space at home was very small, and people spent most of their time outside, but now no one is like this." Old Ann observes.
In Quanzhou in 1983, a beautiful woman appeared in Lao An's lens. She pushed the bicycle, dressed modestly, and wrapped her head around her neck. That face was smiling, sweet and simple. Lao An felt that her smile could represent the state of many women in that era.
This group of Chinese group photos taken from 1981-1984 was named "A Little Rest" by Lao An. In his view, it was the "era of taking a breath", "it was not the political atmosphere of the 70s, it was not the construction in the 90s, there was a rapid development, I think it was a breath of breath, everyone is reflecting on what is going on with themselves, a little cautious step forward, do not know how big a step can be taken." Old Ann told Southern Weekend reporters.
When Lao An was studying at Fudan University, he once met a representative of a company operating steel equipment in Italy in the elevator of the Peace Hotel, because Lao An Chinese said well and quickly received a job offer from this company. At that time, in addition to the staff of foreign embassies, it was difficult for foreigners to find job opportunities in China, and Lao An was one of the first foreigners to really work in China.
In 1986, Lao An graduated and successfully joined the company. The multinational had no office in the mainland at the time, only an agency in Hong Kong, and Lao An lived in Hong Kong for three years. Although he lives in Hong Kong, he still manages the mainland market, Lao An frequently travels around the mainland, and every time he travels, he will bring a camera and a video camera, as long as he has a little time, he will run around and shoot everywhere. In 1990, the company decided to open an office in Beijing, and Lao An, as the head of the Beijing office, moved from Hong Kong to Beijing and has since settled here.
In 1999, Lao An decided to quit his job to open his own art studio and do his favorite project. What interested him most was the very active cultural atmosphere in Beijing in the 1980s and 1990s.
Through friends who studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Lao An met the artists who were not yet famous at that time, and the friends introduced friends, and in this way, the active figures in the literary and art circles in Beijing intersected with Lao An. He and another friend who did photography and documentaries, Olivo Barberi, decided to record the cultural dynamics of Beijing at that time and do a group of interviews with people, so there was a later documentary "Beijing Trilogy".
Wang Xiaobo was Lao An's first subject. Through the introduction of friends, Lao An met Wang Xiaobo. He went to The home of Wang Xiaobo and Li Yinhe for several interviews, and this image became the only precious image left by Wang Xiaobo before his death.
Wang Xiaobo in Lao An's lens is a pioneer. At the end of the 1990s, computers were still a rare thing, and Wang Xiaobo had already bought a computer at home to use for creation. "He's a very open person, there's no clichés, we talk about urban planning in Beijing, we talk about gays, there's no barrier to a lot of things." Lao An told Southern Weekend reporters. Later, Wang Xiaobo wrote in The Silent Majority, "My Italian friend said that except for being a little dirty and messy, the city of Beijing is very much like an American city. The Italian friend mentioned in the article is Lao An.
Cui Jian also appeared in Lao An's Beijing Trilogy. Lao An recalls that the early 1990s was the peak of Cui Jian's creation, when he toured the country, tickets became a hot commodity on the black market, and performances were often cancelled temporarily, "like hide-and-seek". "His music is full of special powers, there are a lot of Chinese elements, although it is rock, but it is not at all like foreign rock." Lao Ann commented. Later, for a while, Lao An studied Chinese folk music and found that a famous Huayin old-fashioned artist in Shaanxi Province, "Bai Mao", sang and spit out words in a way that was particularly similar to Cui Jian, and he took the video of taking bai mao to Cui Jian to see, and Cui Jian frequently nodded.
In addition to Wang Xiaobo and Cui Jian, there are also Yu Hua, Acheng, Fang Lijun, Li Xianting and others in the Beijing Trilogy. "My overall feeling is that everyone is active and very unpretentious. At that time Chinese life was very simple, and many people had not yet become famous, including Wang Xiaobo. It seems that with a casual grasp, you can get to know a very talented person, everyone is particularly easy-going, it is a very shining day. Old Ann said.
In addition to making documentaries, Lao Ann also makes movies. His old friend Ning Ying had served as an assistant director for Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor", and in 2005, Ning Ying directed the women's theme film "Infinite Movement" and invited Lao An to be the photographer, because of this film, Lao An met Hong Huang and Liu Sola. A considerable part of the scenes in Infinite Motion were filmed at the home of Hong Huang's mother, Zhang Hanzhi, who played a successful fashion magazine publisher. She borrowed the mouth of a girl and ridiculed the intellectuals, "First you have to talk about philosophy, then you have to talk about art, from East to West, giving you the feeling that this man wants to know you."
Lao An was impressed by Hong Huang, "She is a very Westernized person, a person who has eaten the West thoroughly. She understood the law of 'hype' earlier than any other Chinese. Whether it's a product, a book, or a work of art, she's always wondering how to hype success. In addition, she is a very open person, not afraid of heaven and earth, which is relatively rare among Chinese women. He commented.
The variety show "Summer of the Band" made Peng Lei, the lead singer of the New Pants Band, popular. Peng Lei and Lao An met around 2000 and have been friends for many years. At that time, Peng Lei also did cartoons, and the DV part was found by Lao An to help shoot. He also helped Peng Lei make two small-budget movies and never asked them to collect money.
Lao An remembered that once the New Pants Band went to Suzhou to perform, needed some new photos, the four of them found Lao An, Lao An took several photos in two hours, changed hands and sent them to Peng Lei, less than a few minutes, he transferred tens of thousands of pieces. "I said you don't do this," Lao Ann marveled. Peng Lei remembered Lao An's unconditional help at the beginning, and at every turn he bought several photos of Lao An, Lao An published a book, and he bought many books.
Photography by Lao An (Photo/Photo provided by the interviewee)
In the late 1980s, Lao An began a self-driving journey in China. He was the first foreign customer of BAIC's "First Car Rental Company", who lived in Hong Kong at that time, and rented a car every time he came to Beijing for business, running henan and Shandong.
After settling in Beijing in the 1990s, Lao An bought a car. Driving the "Beijing A" black card (the exclusive license plate of foreign-funded enterprises), Lao An was on the road. There are no highways, all roads are being built. Lao An drove from Beijing to Shanghai, could not see any signs, travel all rely on the map, on a county, a town to run, almost to the shanghai boundary, only to appear a Shanghai road sign. The middle of the road is often piled with coal and wheat grass, and farmers put freshly harvested wheat on the national highway, sometimes tens of kilometers can only press the wheat forward.
Gradually, construction began on the expressway section by section. Lao An remembers that at that time, it was very difficult to get out of Beijing, because it was all about building roads. Once, when I went to Shanhaiguan, it rained heavily, and all the cars fell into the mud, and the trucks overturned, and the stones loaded were scattered on the ground, blocking the road. In the middle of the night, the queue is long, no one can pass, the scene is very spectacular. Everyone didn't know what to do, and finally Lao An was the first to get off the bus, and Zhang Luo asked everyone to get off the car and work together to transport the stones away, which cleared the road overnight.
At first, the highway was not completely closed, and there was only one passing lane in the middle of the two-way road, that is, no matter which direction it was headed, the middle road was used to overtake. At that time, there were many swallows, swallows were not used to the fast cars on the highway, sometimes the road staged "life and death speed", flocks of swallows startled, some avoided; later there was a toll station, the toll was finished, the car drove forward, not far to drive on a wall, the toll station did not prompt.
"It was a period of barbaric growth, life changed, new rules were needed, but many rules had not yet been formed." Lao An told Southern Weekend reporters.
The painter Liu Xiaodong is a friend of Lao An and has been a neighbor of Lao An for nearly a decade, which is a small piece of unpropriated homestead in the rural areas of eastern Beijing. Lao An, Liu Xiaodong, Xie Xiaodong, Tao Jin... A dozen friends in the literary and art circles, one rented one or two acres of land, and found a construction team to build a room on the flat ground, which was their original home. Because of their arrival, the area was known as the "Star Village", and each person was awarded an honorary villager certificate, intended to help improve the cultural level of the villagers.
Water and electricity problems, heating problems, have to be solved by themselves, and road construction is also dependent on their own. The outside of the community is the cement road on the edge of the stinky ditch, this road is slightly higher than the community, Lao Ann drove his first Fiat out of the courtyard door, the car turned in mid-air, friends laughed at him, drove a Fiat out of the Ferrari momentum.
Liu Xiaodong wrote in the preface to Lao An's "Rest" album: "We Chinese know that this kind of private building without property rights will have many troubles, and we are in trouble, suffering, and sometimes calling brothers and brothers with the locals, wine and meat into mud, and sometimes tit-for-tat confrontation and mutual non-concession."
Later, friends moved out of the "Star Village", but Lao An still stayed here, running his personal studio here, raising children here, and living here for more than twenty years. In recent years, because of his children's schooling, he has rented a house in the city, and the children live in the city most of the time, and Lao An runs at both ends.
Lao An's Chinese story continues. He likes to quote the poor artist Kuneris: "China today is epic, as was the United States of the last century." "People are emotional animals, social animals, can feel the vitality and popularity of the place", if you can, Lao An is willing to stay here and feel everything here.
Southern Weekend reporter Li Yilan