Johannes Leistner

“Hi, my name is Jiang Wan Quan, my western name is Kevin Johnson, so just call me Kevin please!”
This is 17 year old Kevin, the security guard of my apartment building. He is a very diligent door boy and every time foreigners enter the building, he uses his few words English to talk to them. That is how we got in contact and how I learned more about his life…

Being a security guard is a tough job, he has to work 12 hours a day, 30 days a month, no weekend, no day off. His monthly pay is 1.000 Yuan which is around 100 Euro. Kevin lives in an "apartment" together with the other security boys in the underground level of that building complex - four guys in each room.
His biggest dream is to become an interpreter, that is the reason why you always see him with an excercise book in his hands. For undisturbed studying he likes quiet night shifts the most. If there is time he also watches English TV, to learn more about western cultures.

Kevin’s family lives in a distant province on the countyside, which is 12 hours away by train. He has got four sisters and one twin brother and doesn’t get to see one of them very often.
The parents and his one sister work in a factory and also take care of the small piece of acre they have. Two sisters are married and his twin brother attends the high school.
I can imagine his parents were quite happy, when they received the offer from the recruitment company to give their son a job in Beijing. For them it meant one person less to feed and to take care of. Though I also think they miss him madly!

I admire Kevin’s sunny mind, how he deals with his live’s circumstances and goes straight forward with his English studies to become an interpreter. Every day I see him, I encourage him to keep up with his dream!

btw: If you want to tell him something personally, just leave a comment (with your name, country and city) and my friend Chen Guang (who lives there, too) will let Kevin know about your message…

This is the government’s dream for China: nice and shiny apartment buildings as symbol for a prosperous economy - wealth for everyone!
Of cause until now, only a very few can afford such luxury apartments (shown here the Palms Springs complex). Those flats cost hundreds of thousands Euro.

Beijing is a city of unbelievable contrasts: only one kilometer away from the “Palm Springs” apartment complex you find an area with muddy, unpaved roads and small brick-built houses. Obviously it is a poor neighborhood, where people do the cooking in front of their shacks and most of the life takes place on the street.
Isn’t it sheer mockery, that an extra large advertisement is telling about the glorious future these people soon will be looking at - but without being part of it!
"One World One Dream" is written there - a cynical message for those guys…

This is Mr. Wang. Mister Wang owns a small bar in the neighborhood. Actually it is nothing more than a shack with an improvisational bar counter an a fridge.
He has been living here all his life, has seen many changes and soon this place will be destroyed for a dream which isn’t his one.

This is Mrs. Lee. She is preparing tonight’s dinner together with her kids and her sister. For now everything looks peaceful, except the gloomy concrete skeletons of the new apartment area in the background. She might also ask herself, of who’s dream she is part of…

This is Mister Cheng. He thought his years of retirement would turn out to be relaxed and quiet. But instead he cannot overhear the every day’s construction noise from the building site in the background. The government’s future seems to be at his doorsteps, only a stone’s throw away - and he won’t be part of it.
He’s got no illusions that sooner or later his small house will be torn off. Nobody will care about the fact, that it is his own property. It will proceed as always in those cases: some money and a small apartment in the suburbs will be offered… no change to refuse…

One World - One Nightmare

The annual China market in Hamburg has been a good possibility to become acquainted with my upcoming holiday in Beijing later this year in October.
For this photograph I used my neutral density filter which allows you to do long exposure shots even at bright daylight. The filter simply reduces the amount of light coming through your lens without manipulating the color. This photo was taken with f/22 and an exposure time of 30 seconds.