Huangbaiyu

Huangbaiyu, like any thing, means different things to different people. Huangbaiyu is at the same time a trademark, a series of ravines in eastern Liaoning, a sustainable development project, a striated purple-aqua colored stone, a valley filled with yellow cypresses, the hope for a green urban future, a linguistic marker for a level of government administration, a lure to attract American investment, and a home. Read more... the valleys and villages Heading south from Benxi city on National Road 304, the structures of the city disintegrate--the road is ravaged by potholes. As National Road 304 stretches beyond the plains of Shenyang it begins to climb the rolling hills at the western edge of the Changbai mountain range, and enter Benxi. Continuing south, the road winds up the ever steeper foothills that rise from here eastward into Jinan, and North Korea. Read more... The Project the facts The project to create what in 2005 has been called both “The World’s First Village” on the Benxi City-hosted website for Huangbaiyu, as well as “Asia’s First Village” by Liaoning Daily was initiated in a conference room at the Beijing Hotel in September 2002. Read more... moments in time and perspective The Opening Ceremonies Chinese-American Sustainable Development Dumplings The Business of Leaders and Commoners A Personal Introduction I arrived in Huangbaiyu the day of the “opening ceremonies” for the first house built in the project. It was May 21, 2005. I was to be the resident anthropologist, studying the effects of rapid, communal change in technology and spatial relationships as residents of the old valleys of Huangbaiyu were relocated into the new eco-town. Coming in on the bus from Shenyang with members of the Board of Councilors for the CUCSD, it suddenly hit me that I was about to see the place that I would be calling home for the next year and a half--for the first time. While I had thought a great deal about the context of my research on this project in relationship to the history of development, and had spent much of the previous 8 years either living in, or writing about, or studying China, I had no idea what this place would look like. Read more... Press Coverage deciding to speak In April, 2006 I could no longer continue reading the glowing stories of the successful development of a model eco-town in Huangbaiyu without becoming angry or depressed. When approached by reporters researching a story on the model development for BBC World Service, I said that I would talk to them if they’d leave Dai’s receiving hall, and come with me into the village--into the areas where the residents of these valleys lived, rather than in the office of the developer, or on the construction site. Read more... article listings Sacks, Danielle. “Green Guru Gone Wrong: William McDonough.” Fast Company. October 2008. Lesle, Tim. “Western Promises.” Dwell. October 2008. (Not available online.) More listings... Photography a model construction site the days of two weddings three generations in a mud house maize harvest combing cashmere primary school rural labor rural leisure (albums will be added shortly) In April, 2006 I could no longer continue reading the glowing stories of the successful development of a model eco-town in Huangbaiyu without becoming angry or depressed. When approached by reporters researching a story on the model development for BBC World Service, I said that I would talk to them if they’d leave Dai’s receiving hall, and come with me into the village--into the areas where the residents of these valleys lived, rather than in the office of the developer, or on the construction site. Those spaces were places that the people who lived in Huangbaiyu were almost never invited. And so I began to share the data I gathered through conversations made possible through months building personal relationships with the individuals and families who lived in Huangbaiyu. And I took these reporters, and every other that followed, into the homes of families, and encouraged them to ask questions directly of the people who lived in these valleys and what they thought of and how they experienced the model development project in their midst, rather than relying on press releases and sales pitches. Soon coverage on Huangbaiyu began to change, as reporters now had access to data culled from the reality of this place and its people rather than only from a sales pitch in a controlled office. article listings (additional articles, particularly those before 2005 & Chinese press will be added) Sacks, Danielle. “Green Guru Gone Wrong: William McDonough.” Fast Company. October 2008. Lesle, Tim. “Western Promises.” Dwell. October 2008. (Not available online.) Lesle, Tim. “Cradle and All: Anthropologist Shannon May set out to study village life in rural China. She would up getting an education in the pitfalls of sustainable development.” California Magazine. September/October 2008. B., Jonathan. “A (Well-Intentioned) Green Failure: Huangbaiyu.” Re-nest: Abundant Designs for Green Homes. 5 March 2008. Lesle, Tim. “China: Green Dreams: A (not so) model village.” Stories from a Small Planet. PBS/Frontline World. February 2008. Ellis, Linden. “China’s Environment: A Few Things We Should Know.” The New Security Beat. Environmental Change and Security Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. 17 December 2007 Funk, Mackenzie. “China’s Green Evolution.” Popular Science. 2 July 2007. Schafer, Sarah. “ Trouble for China's Model Green City,” Newsweek International: web exclusive. 11 May 2007. Streeter, April. “A Tale of Two Cities: China’s sprawling cityscapes are starting to sprout some eco-alternatives.” Green Futures. Forum for the Future. 2 November 2006. Toy, Mary-Anne. “China’s first eco-village proves a hard sell.” The Age. 26 August 2006. Simultaneously published as: Toy, Mary-Anne. “Green Dream Vanishes in Puff of Reality.” The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 August 2006. Sudjic, Dejan. “Making Cities Work: China.” BBC NEWS. 21 June 2006. Xu Ke. “From Harvard to Huangbaiyu.” China Pictorial. December 2006. Stone, Richard. “Development and Ecology: Villagers Drafted into China’s Model of ‘Sustainability’.” Science 7 April 2006: Vol. 312. no. 5770, p. 36. DOI: 10.1126/science.312.5770.36a Streeter, April. “Big Trouble in Rural China.” Sustainable Industries Journal. 28 April 2006. Schafer, Sarah and Anne Underwood. “Building in Green.” Newsweek International. 26 September-3 October, 2005.