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Beijing Besieged: Wang Jiuliang’s Urban Ecology UnhingedPost an Event »

University of California, Berkeley

March 10 - June 11, 2011

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http://www.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-6000

Berkeley

94720

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Beijing Besieged: Wang Jiuliang’s Urban Ecology Unhinged

While China's rise, and its immense challenges, commands world attention, less light has been shed upon the colossal problem of waste generated by a burgeoning population, expanding industry, and rapacious urban growth. Photographer Wang Jiuliang turns his lens upon the grim spectacle of garbage, excrement, refuse, and wreckage heaped upon the landscape that surrounds China's mega-metropolis, Beijing. Eeking out a precarious and hazardous living within are the rag pickers, mostly rural migrants, who struggle to maintain familial and cultural structures amid the bleakest of occupations. In this exhibit we see the desecration of once-vital farmlands and rivers in the shadow of the new China's gleaming cities and planes and super-trains; the unholy cycle of construction's consumption and waste, and poignant images of the daily lives of the gleaners who toil at their own peril. A symposium in conjunction with this exhibit, "The City Besieged by Garbage: Politics of Waste Production and Distribution in Beijing," and screening of Wang Jiuliang's documentary film "Beijing Besieged by Waste," will be held on Monday, April 11. An Artist's Talk with photographer Wang Jiuliang will be held on Tuesday, April 12, at 4 p.m. Sponsored by Institute of East Asian Studies, Center for Chinese Studies, Department of Geography, Townsend Center for the Humanities, and Global Metropolitan Studies All the following events take place at Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley 6th Floor, 2223 Fulton Street #2318, Berkeley, CA 94720-2318 Photo Exhibit: March 10 - June 10 Symposium: April 11, 2pm The City Besieged by Garbage: Politics of Waste Production and Distribution in Beijing Speakers: Joshua Goldstein (Professor of History, University of Southern California), Da Mao (Ph.D Candidate in Environmental History, Beijing Normal University), and Shih-yang Kao (Ph.D Candidate in Geography, UC Berkeley) Moderator: Professor You-tien Hsing, Geography, UC Berkeley Film Screening: April 11, 5pm Beijing Besieged by Waste, followed by Q&A with film director Wang Jiuliang Moderator: Max Woodworth (Ph.D Candidate in Geography, UC Berkeley) Artist Talk: April 12: 4pm The Artist as Environmental Activist: Conversation with Wang Jiuliang Moderator: Max Woodworth (Ph.D Candidate in Geography, UC Berkeley)