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First impressions of Vivian Ngan’s filming in Heilongjiang province
Live from Heilongjiang Province, China, we present the first results of the heroic journey of Vivian Ngan in the context of The Links Project. On our photo of Vivian, she can be seen with a Chinese soldier who kindly recited the poem for us, thus securing also in China the tradition we have of representing in each country someone from either the military or the police, representing each countries best men in the sense that they preserve security for the larger community.
Regrettably, Vivian did not yet have the time to give us her personal diaries, but she informed us that she regrets not having enough time to spend more time with the people she meets. However, n this project she is on a tight 3 places a day schedule, both due to the financial reality of such a trip, and because she needs to be home in time for new job to begin.
As the Poet, I can only say that I am impressed with the results. She recently stayed two weeks to Amsterdam for an intensive course that involved photography and a video camera course. We trained her in every aspect of the project, focusing on teaching her the style that was maintained in the project by both Guido van Dooremaalen and myself. Whereas Guido taught me, I now passed on the torch to Vivian and I am proud to show the first results of her efforts. These are simply amazing – completely in line with the other 529 places, but at the same time revealing an individual eye to people and situations.
The trip
Vivian started on Saturday, September 7, 2013, by flying from Hong Kong to Harbin, from where she traveled to the most Northeast place in China, Xiachengzi, on the border with the Primorsky Krai in Siberia, the area that has Vladivostok as capital. Her arrival there was planned two weeks earlier, but the terrible flooding of large parts of the Northern part of the Heilongjiang province, prevented an earlier arrival. There simply wasn't transportation available to all places on the route.
From Xiachengzi Vivian traveled to Mudangjiang and Hailin. The next day she recruited a friendly taxi driver who took her to Weihe, Yimianpo, Shiangzi and Acheng. This enabled her to find interesting candidates on typical locations. As can be seen in the slide shows, she managed to maintain our tradition to include all sorts of professions, ages – the full range of society.
Meanwhile, she passed over Harbin to Zalantun, from where she is working her way back to Harbin. We expect the Chinese part of the project to be completed by Friday.
The Poet.
