DoorZine: Freezing Land is a series of landscapes and portraits of young people from Northeast China (Dongbei), a region bordering Russia and North Korea—the former Chinese “rust belt,” now largely forgotten by the media and by development. In your previous projects, you explored the consequences of urbanization and industrialization in places familiar to you: Zhejiang Province (where you grew up) for Christmas Factory (2015), and the Yangtze Delta for Petrochemical China (2013). Why did you choose to travel to Dongbei, a region with which you have no personal ties, thousands of kilometers from home?

Chen Ronghui: At first, I was mainly concerned with geographic distance. Later, it was the spiritual distance that absorbed me. As an artist, creation often begins in places where you live—it’s easier, and of course that’s where our daily reflections originate. For example, when the city where I lived experienced a tap water crisis for a year, every day after work I would go buy bottled water at the supermarket.

I learned that the river water had actually been polluted by petrochemical factories. I used photography to express myself—you could even say to resist. That is how Petrochemical China was born. As for choosing the Northeast, on one hand it responds to the southern imagination of the North—the vast icy and snowy landscapes. It rarely snows in the South, yet snow appears in many of our literary and artistic works. For example, Tales of Hulan River by writer Xiao Hong, a 1942 novel that deeply influenced me.

On the other hand, as I said, I am interested in psychology. I wanted to tell the story of these places, go back to earlier times, and build a setting. I am not an action photographer, like set photographers for instance. I chose the Northeast because that is where the story I wanted to tell was located.

We are all faced with many choices, but in reality—and quite cruelly—it is impossible to truly choose. There are many situations there that resonate with me, as well as many young people my age.

DoorZine: Would you say this series continues your investigations into urbanization in China?

It is a very natural process. Before Petrochemical China, almost all my projects dealt with urbanization in China. Chinese urbanization is an unprecedented phenomenon. Our development did not unfold over the past hundred years like in other countries—it has happened almost within my lifetime, a little over thirty years. In the series Runaway World, which I photographed later, I focused on amusement parks. These places are linked to a certain stage of urbanization: society fully entering the era of consumerism. China opened a Disneyland and began building many theme parks.

With Freezing Land, I continue in that direction. Behind urban development, there is something like atrophy or decline. There is even a term used by architects and urban planners: “shrinking cities.” I wanted to focus on the current situation of shrinking cities in Northeast China. My own growth has paralleled China’s rapid urban expansion, and I want to reflect on the relationship between the individual and the urban phenomenon.

DoorZine: Why did you focus on youth?

I am very interested in young people. On one hand, I belong to this demographic group and I want to communicate with people my age through photography. It is a way to better understand myself. On the other hand, I am drawn to the vitality of youth. I want to express that energy through my art. The age of the models is not my only criterion. Some are very young, others older, but they all share the same energy. When I see them, I feel the urge to create something from it.

DoorZine: Through these portraits, there seems to be a strong sense of closeness between you and your subjects, whether photographed in their daily environment or outdoors. How did you find them, and how did you work with them?

I initiated most contacts through the Kuaishou app. Today, you can no longer publish casting calls in newspapers or magazines. So I communicated with my subjects through Kuaishou before scouting locations to photograph them. Outside of the shoots, I developed friendly relationships with them. But during portrait sessions, I remained very focused—I had to turn inward to draw from my emotions. Of course, we discussed the shoots a lot together.

DoorZine: Northeast China was once a prosperous region, now in decline, at a time when President Xi Jinping speaks of the “Chinese Dream,” and economic development pushes young people to leave villages and poorer provinces for large cities. Those living along the rivers and lakes in Yichun, Longjing, Fularji, Fushun, or Shuangyashan—who are they? What are their lives and aspirations made of?

You cannot really say that the Northeast is a poor province. I think it is rather a region marked by a sense of disconnection. This disconnection affects young people more than poverty itself. Many people cannot move beyond the planned economy or public administration. They still hope to rely on “connections” to solve their problems. In families, young people with qualifications often become civil servants and work in the public sector, but deep down they reject this type of profession. This is another contradiction.

There are also those who do livestreaming—their goal is to become “internet celebrities”—but very few succeed. In reality, most are just trying to pass the time. Wanting to move forward but being afraid—this is the mindset of many people. After becoming accustomed to living in a collectivist system, leaving and becoming independent is difficult.

Interview conducted by Victoria Jonathan & Bérénice Angremy.

Read the full interview with Chen Ronghui in the bilingual French–Chinese catalog of the exhibition Flowing Waters Never Return to the Source available for purchase starting July 15, 2020 on the Bandini Books website.

To learn more about Chen Ronghui’s work:
Website: ronghuichen.com
Instagram: @chenronghuiphoto