BY SARAH BRICAULT

In print | October 25, 2007

In the Shane Lounge in Parrish, you can catch a glimpse of another country. Photographs taken by members of the Swarthmore community depict the unique and diverse nation of China.

In addition to being a presentation of students’ photography, this exhibit is also a fundraiser for a non-profit group in Beijing that aids mentally disabled children. Pledge forms are available at the exhibit and for every $10 donation you can keep one of the exhibit’s photos.

Yimei Zou ‘10, Alice Xiang ’10 and Ben Zhang ’10 compose the project committee for “Glimpses,” a presentation that opened from Oct. 22 – 24. "’We realized that there were an incredible number of Swatties who have visited China recently and have taken amazing pictures there," Zhang said. “it would be really neat if we [could] pull these pictures together to present China in Swatties’ view.” And this is exactly what the exhibit succeeds in doing. A printed handout detailing important facts about the country, combined with an incredibly broad collection of photographs gives the exhibit a personal and varied view of China. Photographs in the exhibit range from a shot of performers at a traditional opera to a nighttime photograph of Beijing.Ê

This exhibit is particularly interesting because the photos displayed are, as the exhibit’s introduction explains, “different from the images available in mainstream media.” There are no images of political events or newsworthy happenings.

This is not the China we see in the news, a country often characterized by “a mass of political, environmental, and economic problems.” This is China from the perspective of the Swarthmore community, with picture showing a different aspect of this dynamic country of “extreme contrasts, everyday things, little wonders and absurdities.”

From these photographs, we can see how difficult it is to understand a country based on those few photographs we see in the news. No one picture shows the ‘true’ or ‘correct’ view of this country.

The landscape of this country is captured by a glorious shot of the softly colored mountains in Guilin taken by Karen Shen ‘11, but also by Xiang’s photo depicting the glitter and high style of a “luxurious” shopping mall in Beijing.

A picture of a lecture hall at Peking University, “the university that every Chinese student aspires to go to,” by Zhang depicts the education system, but so too does Zou’s shot of a child playing near a rundown “kindergarten for migrant workers’ kids.”

This exhibit reminds us that a photograph can only ever give us a ‘glimpse,’ can only ever depict a single moment in time. Looking at this collection of ‘glimpses’ that shows many moments from many perspectives from locations across the country, we can begin to understand the diversity and dynamic nature of China.

Disclosure Note: Yimei Zou is a photographer for The Phoenix, but had no role in the production of this article.

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