There are a lot of shops selling badges, we are very curious, who that is? So we get in the shop and ask the question, the boss said he don’t know, it’s for the customers. 1 badge for ¥2.5, at least order for 1000 pieces. The boss said only for wholesale but not for retail when we asking if he can sell us some badges. Some of the badges are really well-made, the boss won’t sell any even if we bag him. And he won’t let us take photos. We guess those little portraits on the badges are football stars, presidents, leader of a party, or some head of the village.

We walk into a commercial hall-Xin Hong Hui commercial hall, there are not many people in it at night. We heard a shop owner said to an African customer “I’ll beat you if you don’t bring me customer next time”, and the customer answer “I know, for sure for sure.” Most of the shop in this hall are selling the similar products.

VPN’s cost is ¥100 for a year, and there is router with VPN within itself for ¥500, no limitation of data usage. Use VPN in China to get on American website.

We see a drug store (aphrodisiac and health care product) and talk to the owner. The owner is from Qinghai, this store opens for almost a year, those aphrodisiac is cover by english but the drugs inside are made from China. The owner recommended some brands (YONGGANG, Kangaroo, Shark) the African use to purchase, about ¥35-50. Some of them are import from Australia, will charged a little more. The first thing we thought about is “Even they have to use this?” We ask about if these drugs have side-effect, the owner’s answer is “Yes if you take too many.” The owner also told us some of the products here are African give samples to Chinese, mass production in China, and sell it back to Africa. What a honest person! We exchange our number.

That is it for the night, we slowly walk from ”Black area” to the “White area”.

Image 1: An African gives his just-bought banana to another African.
Image 2: Variety of badges
Image 3: We pick up a badge on the side of street, though we don’t know who he is.
Image 4: Found some fake products in the hall
Image 5: VPN is necessary in China (for African), so there are many customers around here.
Image 6: In a drug store…

3d group: cai huansheng, yu yiyi, lin aojie, lai zhijie, chen paian

Which role does Western colonialism and the industrial revolution play in China and Africa today?
Will the “fairy tale” be turned into a “nightmare” through the modernization process?
Can a whole culture be based on idealizing and emulating another?
How can a different culture be understood and translated into one’s own language? What will happen if you bring the translation into a different context?
How is the changing of language related to the way people construct their society and their social value system?
How will it be to relocate art works in different circumstances?
Is imperialism still an issue on the public’s mind?

Huang Xiaopeng‘s work will be focusing on the love-hate relationship in the geopolitically fraught process of globalization, and how we imaging the other.