Hidden beauty and martial art movies

During a research trip to South Africa last summer, Zhang Chi visited several deprived areas to learn about the conditions facing the people who live in them. The first slum she visited was on the western outskirts of Cape Town, where the residents had built temporary shelters from sheets of iron and strips of linen on plots of deserted land.

Thanks to frequent media reports, the dusty roads and congested settlements were nothing new to the 22-year-old senior at Yale University, who is majoring in architecture. Instead, Zhang was interested in discovering what lay behind the tumbledown walls.

As she walked behind the shabby walls, she realized that they enclosed tiny courtyards. Even though they were only a couple of square meters, each courtyard was full of flowers and artfully arranged plants. Some even had wooden tables and benches, giving a feeling of a "South Asian hotel garden".