cotton road 棉花之路

I am incredibly lucky to have met Sha Mei and Peng Hong, two new friends who took me on a tour yesterday of the outskirts of  Wai Gao Qiao Free Trade Zone in Shanghai, in the Pudong “new area”.  Sha Mei is friends with my new friend Paul Morton; they met in New York and helped each other learn English and Chinese.  Sha Mei is a professor at the Shanghai Maritime University and does research in logistics, in the “flow” of things (ships, and therefore commerce).  Peng Hong works at a company in Wai Gao Qiao called Shanghai Haitong International Automotive Terminal. Her company imports and exports cars though the port.

This “new area” reference applies to a lot of Pudong, the east side of the city of Shanghai.  Wai Gao Qiao is a relatively new trade port and is being built in phases; currently phase 5 is finished and there are signs of continuing expansion everywhere.  The growth rate of the port, in handling capacity (i.e., the flow of “boxes”, i.e., goods) has grown 20 % each year; in 2008, however, the growth rate was approximately 8%. Driving out towards Wai Gao Qiao the landscape is incredibly flat; it is an open space that perhaps contained farms and in some places still does, but there is a sense of the pre-industrial strewn about: electric lines crisscrossing the land and sky, the sense of the earth’s surface having been moved around to accommodate the whims of industry and the urgent growth of the city.  

It was a rather gloomy day with a strong wind and drizzly, inconsistent rain. Ports are, both visually and aurally, overwhelming environments (see my post on the Port of Savannah); but the thing about the periphery of Wai Gao Qiao on this day was that it was eerily still. The only people we saw were guards at the gates to the various entry points; there was next to no traffic coming and going through the gates.  Occasionally a truck carrying a container would rumble past, but this large place dedicated to ever increasing expansion and growth and the movement of global commerce was otherwise not moving. The first outside area we entered was, I think, the company that Sha Mei does research work for; the containers stacked here on the left were one of the first views we had inside the gate.  I could stare at stacked boxes for hours.  The box somehow represents order and chaos at the same time.  It is something that moves constantly; it has secrets because it hides what’s inside; but it is often seen at rest, contained in a large stack with other boxes.  The colors and markings on each box are somewhat unique; they are variously colored due to age and wear, and when lined up together they are ordered, but still dynamic in the patterns that they create when juxtaposed with other containers. The architecture they embody– the simple square on one end; the rectangle length-wise– is efficient and orderly.  I think there is beauty in this efficiency.  And altogether the image is like a quilt.  I could stare at these architectural structures and reorder them through my camera for hours and never get bored. 

The second gate we went to had a marvelous sign out front:  no entry for irrelevant persons.  I suppose that was me and Paul at this point in time, but the guard was very friendly and let us snap photos and even allowed me to take his picture. As we stood in this area for a while about 3 trucks rumbled past.  I asked Sha Mei and Peng Hong if they ever wonder what is inside these containers.  They both answered that they really never think about it, but that these containers stacked here are empty.  They are waiting to be filled.  I’m not sure why they are empty right now:  Chinese New Year?  lack of global demand? Even if these boxes are empty, I think about what might be in them almost all the time, how their contents represent the world economy and the efforts of so many workers.  I would still like to ride in a container for a while and listen to the sounds of commerce moving, to the accumulation of movement across time as they are transported from land to ship to sea to land.  I hope I can find a way to make some recordings at least.  I’m not sure how requests like this will be understood here, or if this is something I’ll undertake when I get back to the US.  But today I feel I’ve made quite a bit of progress, just being able to see this place and to meet Sha Mei and Peng Hong; I know they will introduce me to the right people if Wai Gao Qiao turns out not to be where the cotton from South Carolina will eventually enter. In the photo on the left you can see a truck with a container, heading towards the dock where it will probably be stacked and then eventually loaded. The large vertical structures at the apex of this photo are the cranes that lift the boxes onto the ships. 

Here is a final image of a gate where containers enter the port area.  You can see more containers stacked beyond.  At the end of our tour we went to Peng Hong’s company and saw hundreds if not thousands of cars waiting to be exported to the Middle East.  There were Toyota Corollas and other brands; I believe Peng Hong mentioned that their biggest company is GM, which I found very hard to believe. Perhaps China will save GM from itself.

Yesterday afternoon I had a great meeting with Mr. Robin Wang, the Director of SMH International, an organization that represents a consortium of trade groups from each region in the U.S.  SMH’s focus is to represent agricultural products, including cotton; they are located in the same building as the SC Commerce Office, PuFa Tower, seen here on the right. Mr. Wang and his staff provided great assistance for Cotton Road. They prepared a list of the top 5 textile companies in Shanghai, with contact information. After the spring festival is over, in early February, Mr. Wang’s staff will help to make contact with these textile companies.  In the meantime, I need to find out if any cotton merchants in South Carolina have a relationship with any of these companies.  We also discussed the economic slow down today; mills are not buying imported cotton and production has slowed because demand for textile products overseas has also declined.  Mr. Wang explained that the Chinese government will be announcing an economic stimulus plan in February.

I explained my intention to track Carl Brown’s cotton through the production process here, but to also film as many different aspects of cotton’s transformation. I am aware of the ways cotton is promoted in the U.S. but haven’t considered the global promotion of the industry until today.  As in the U.S., movie stars and other well known spokespeople are hired in China and Hong Kong to represent the finished product.  2009 has been declared International Year of Natural Fibers and promotion for this yearly celebration includes fashion shows of special collections designed by movie stars.  A fashion show will set up quite a visual contrast with South Carolina farmers and Chinese textile workers.

We spoke about my goal to have the story of the global circulation of cotton be told through the lives of all workers– from factory floor to, I suppose now, movie stars.  I am eager for my next meeting, which may be with a representative from Cotton International or the Cotton Council here in Shanghai, after Chinese New Year.

Today was another great day for Cotton Road.  This afternoon I went to Fudan University where I met with Dr. Yang Ji, a professor of film and media theory in the School of Journalism and the sponsor of my work here in Shanghai, and his graduate student, Li Zhen.  I had a wonderful two hours speaking with them about my documentary work and the goals for Cotton Road.  I tried to explain my shooting and visual style and the way that I want to foreground the lives of people in the global story of this commodity.  We spoke about everything from logistical issues to methods of engagement with the subject in a documentary.  I tried to explain my style as one that is interested in complexity, in nuance, rather than in a dogmatic approach (or a journalistic approach) to capturing the story.  

I made a big mistake by forgetting to bring copies of my previous work!  And in hindsight, perhaps I also should have brought my laptop and hard drives to show footage.  In due time, however.  The term has just ended at Fudan and students and faculty are getting ready for Chinese New Year.  Our next meeting together will likely be sometime on or after February 7.

I am quite take with Li Zhen, the young woman who will work with me as a translator and help with video shoots.  She is very eager to learn about documentary production.  I will rely on her a great deal to help me shape the story here.  She will communicate with people more than I will ever be able to.  I can tell that she is a very sensitive person—she is warm, curious and eager to begin the journey.  My meeting with Li Zhen and Yang Ji was fortuitous, and I am looking forward to our next steps together.

I arrived in Shanghai three weeks ago and after several mis-steps am finally almost settled.  On Jan. 18 I’ll move into an apartment 2 blocks north of the Jing’an Temple in what is more or less the center of Shanghai.  Earlier this week I bought a phone, taught myself how to use the Shanghai metro (HERE is what the metro will look like in about 10 more years; here is an interactive map of the metro in 2009), and have taken a few excursions out from Xujiahui, the area where I have been staying since I arrived.  Next week I’ll be permanently settled in Jing’an and eager to get to work.  I have not had regular email access, otherwise I would have posted sooner.  Thanks to everyone for emailing me and I hope that I will be able respond to your letters soon. 

Today was the first great day for Cotton Road in Shanghai and I hope many more will follow.  I met with John Ling, Director of the South Carolina Commerce Office at PuFa Tower in Pudong, the Pudong Development Bank building.  It’s located approximately one block from the famous Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai’s World Financial Center, both extraordinary modern skyscrapers.  I spoke with Mr. Ling at length about my film project and explained what I hope to achieve with the story.  He suggested several individuals I should meet and generously offered his assistance over the next 6 months.

We talked about my interest in following Carl Brown’s cotton into a textile mill.  I’ve been wondering if I should prioritize my efforts right away on following Carl Brown’s cotton or if I should focus more broadly on any cotton that arrives from South Carolina—whenever it happens to arrive over the next 6 months—and follow the process multiple times.  This would greatly expand the film’s narrative here and enable all kinds of stories to emerge.  I realized when speaking with Mr. Ling today that I can and should do both—I should film anything and everything possible, at every opportunity, and at the same time continue to arrange with Jordan Lea’s help for a few bales of Carl Brown’s cotton to be sent to a textile mill here.

Mr. Ling explained that many textile mills have closed recently, because of the ecomony.  He also indicated that there are textile mills within a 2 to 3 hour drive from Shanghai.  This might present some logistical problems in filming over time, but each location will undoubtedly present unique limitations and possibilities.  I left his office extremely encouraged and eager for the next step.