Tidbits From the World

“Russia is probably the country [among the countries in the former Soviet Bloc] which least looks communist”. This is what I was told by a fellow tourist in Moldova, who thought that Russia, being the richest country in the former USSR, would be the most “capitalist-looking” of all the countries in the former USSR (strictly in an esthetical and superficial point of view).

But as I was visiting Russia, that supposition proved false. It is still possible to find a lot of statues of Lenin in Russia, which is impossible to see in countries in the former USSR (where Vladimir Lenin is considered as a ruthless dictator).

Vladimir Lenin’s bust in Leningradskaya train station in Moscow.

The oldest statue of Lenin that is still standing in Russia.

A statue of Karl Marx and the motto of the former Soviet Union (Workers of the world, unite!) in Moscow.

A slogan on top of an old building. “Glory to labor!” in St-Petersburg.

University of Moscow, a building with a typical stalinian architecture.

Another Stalinian building in Moscow.

The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, looks like the buildings that one finds in Moscow.

In China, the Communist Party is still ruling the country, therefore the country is still officially communist. One cannot really find statues at the effigy of old leaders, but at the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing, there is one portrait of Mao.

Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China.

An old slogan written during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s in a hutong (typical historical area in Beijing). It reads “The ideas of Chairman Mao will survive during the eternity!”

Here is a picture of me taken by my photojournalist friend 王寅 (Wang Yin) in Beijing, while I was trying this t-shirt. The Chinese characters on it 不拆 (bu chai) mean “do not tear down” in reference of all the old buildings in China on which one can see this character, 拆, which means that they are soon to be torn down and replaced by modern buildings.

In China, one sees everything!

On this photo you have a 180º panoramic view on Zhuque avenue (朱雀大街). This is my first attempt at making a panoramic picture, using a technique that I recently discovered. The photo is not perfect, but it’s a start. Most often, panoramic pictures are taken of landscapes,but I think this technique could well be applied to street photography as well.

The four buildings that you see on the left side of the picture are newly built towers, the first one is completed while the three others are still under construction. There is a saying that no Chinese lives in a house nowadays. They all live in apartments. It stands true at least for Chinese people living in cities. There is no room to build houses in big Chinese cities, pretty much like in Japan.

The Halloween party this year in Xi’an, which was organized by foreigners, was the most cosmopolitan party I had ever been to. All continents had their representants. There were people coming from the usual Western countries (United States, Canada, France, Italy, Australia, England, Ireland), people from Latin America (Ecuador and Mexico), and people from some more unusual countries (Russia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Pakistan, India, South Korea). Many Chinese were also invited.

As it is the tradition, on Halloween, people were wearing disguises. Here are pictures of some of the disguises people wore during the party.

This American guy wanted to dress up as chairman Mao, but he bought the wrong costume, and ended up dressing up as his opponent, Chiang Kai-shek (founder of the Republic of China, Taiwan).

Some French people.

An Indian guy, dressed up as a pregnant nun, is chatting with a French woman dressed up as a Black woman.

People are touching his fake belly.

A Mexican guy wearing the traditional costume from the Arabian Peninsula, the thawb and red keffiyeh. Islamic costumes were popular at this party. However, two Pakistani guys went too far when they dressed up as mujahideens (Islamic religious warriors) with fake Ak-47s and walked down the street. It turned out to be a very bad idea, especially in China. They were arrested, their weapons confiscated, and then released.

As usual, everybody was taking pictures of their costumes and of others.

In the end, the apartment where the party took place, was all messed up. The four people who live there will have to clean up everything themselves.

Shattered glass, dirty floors, cigarette butts everywere… the cleaning job ahead will be long and unpleasant…