|
Home>News Center>Life | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Artist demystifies Golden Triangle
Beijinger Han Yunfeng, 40, still remembers vividly his first exciting adventure in the deep south of the country in the border area of Yunnan Province and northern Laos in 1985.
Yet, since 1994 Han has spent much of his time living and travelling in the Golden Triangle region, mostly in the ethnic state of Va (officially known as the Second Special Area of Shan State) in Northeast Myanmar. He has created not only paintings and sketches of the exotic tropical landscapes, but also photos, documentary films and books about the area. The area has long been viewed a source of a large part of the raw material for the illicit drug trade around the world. But "the Golden Triangle today is not a terrible place at all," said Han, at the opening ceremony for his photo exhibition tour to major university campuses across the nation, which started early last month at the Art Museum of his Alma Mater in western Beijing. "I believe that most existing written works have mystified the area. With my photos, documentary films and books, I mean to bring to the viewers a realistic view of the local people, especially the farmers, and of their way of life," Han said. During the ceremony, his newly published photo album, "Portrait of Opium" (Yapian de Xiaoxiang), was also launched and is now available in major bookstores across the country. "Some people have called me 'an international volunteer working for the peaceful elimination of opium,' and I think I am. Actually, I hope to become an unofficial spokesman for the common people living in the Golden Triangle region," Han said. Contented artist When Han enrolled in the Arts School of Beijing Capital Normal University in 1982, his goal in life was simple.
After graduation in 1986, he worked as a middle school teacher in suburban Beijing. In late 1987, he quit his job to devote himself to painting. In 1988, Han began an eight-year-long association with some Chinese filmmakers, including Feng Xiaoning and Qi Jian, working as art directors for such films as "Beiyang Navy" (Beiyang Shuishi), "Disappearing Atmosphere" (Daqiceng Xiaoshi), "War Meridian" (Zhanzheng Ziwuxian), "Asian Race Car" (Yaxiya Saiche) and "Wall of Blood" (Xue Qiang). Han says that in 1993 he helped writer-turned-entrepreneur Zhang Xianliang design the now famous and profitable Northwest China Film and Television Production Base. Between 1990 and 1994, he also worked as an art dealer, running what he claims to have been "a commercially successful" art gallery in downtown Beijing. His vanguard paintings which conveyed his concerns about the negative changes in the natural environment and the ecosystem won accolades from both art critics and collectors. Life change However, it was not until 1994 - when Han watched a documentary made by one of his friends in Yunnan about the Golden Triangle - that he realized he could also take up the video camera and make his own documentary films. At that time, Bao Youxiang, the head of Va state, declared to the world that they were going to destroy all the poppy fields in Va by 2005. Since that time, Han has been a frequent visitor to that mysterious area. His initial idea was "to make a documentary covering the sensational and controversial subject that would hopefully win an award at an international film festival," Han said. "I expected to discover a land of unscrupulous people who made their fortunes by planting opium poppies," Han said in recalling his first intimate encounter with the Golden Triangle. Instead, he added, "I was shocked with what I saw and heard when I really delved deep into that territory of evil plantations. "The ordinary opium poppy growers, mostly ethnic Vas, are trapped in a state of poverty and helplessness," he recalled. Han found that the local farmers did not live in fine houses, wear fancy clothes or drive posh automobiles as he had previously thought. They lived in poorly furnished, run-down shacks, usually made of wooden boards, bamboo panels and earthen bricks. Han remembers almost throwing up when he ate his first bowl of rice there. The rice was fly-blown. He was amazed at the armies of rats that wandered through the tumbledown shanties day and night. Because of his candour and honesty, Han gained the trust of both the local authorities and the farmers. "Day-by-day, year-by-year, I found myself evolving from an outsider, an on-looker, an event chronicler, an independent supervisor with a video camera, into a member of a local community struggling to rebuild itself," Han said. Locals' lives The Golden Triangle is changing under international pressure and with help from the outside world, particularly its northern neighbour China. Thanks to these helping hands, the infrastructure in Va is improving, and alternative forms of economy such as sugar cane processing and tree plantations being established. Hospitals and bilingual schools where both English and local languages are taught are also appearing, Han said. But the international community needs to give more attention to the Golden Triangle, which he believes is one of the most hated, most misrepresented, most misunderstood and least-helped corners of the globe. "The world must do something more effective in this area if the countries where drug trafficking, drug trading and drug abuse are spreading want to kill the root cause of this serious, persistent social malaise," Han said. Han hopes to see more international volunteers and aid agencies in the Golden Triangle area. He also hopes to see shrewd investors, who can offer a helping hand by tapping the resources of this area in a sustainable manner. Han found the area is not as dangerous as some authors make it out to be. Such stories are about the past, Han said. "So far, the only time my life was in danger was in a car accident on a treacherous mountain road," he said. But to Han's surprise, "planting opium poppies has never troubled the conscience of the local farmers. They plant them, harvest them and sell them in an open air market in exactly the same way that most Chinese farmers do with their crops. They do not feel guilty about their work." In fact, "they do not know much about the danger of what they call the 'lazy crop."' It is the drug manufacturers, traffickers and dealers who make great fortunes from the opium business, not the local people, Han points out. Han has several film projects still in production. One of them follows the life of a young local farmer called Yanmai, who lives in Va State and has relatives in neighbouring Yunnan Province of China. During his time together with Yanmai's family and other villagers, Han found that an average farming family of four members earns only about 1,000 yuan (US$120) a year from the poppy fields and has to find other work to make ends meet. "The people at the grass-roots level in the Golden Triangle are living in isolation, poverty and despair - both economically and spiritually," Han said. "They need help from the international community to eradicate the poppies and improve their lives. As for my part in this, all I can do is use my cameras, my paint brushes and my books to help make others aware." By 1999, Han had taken thousands of photos, done dozens of paintings and shot at least 200 scenes on film. In 2000, he got in touch with renowned American investigative reporter Bill Kurtis and the pair struck a deal to promote the peaceful elimination of opium crops in Va. With help from the local office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Myanmar, Han arranged the meeting of Bill Kurtis with top Va leader Bao Youxiang. This was the first time ever for Bao to talk face-to-face with a Western journalist seeking the truth about the region, and the discussion lasted for days, Han said. "The Warlords," a documentary co-produced by Han and Kurtis covering Bao and the Va State as part of the current campaign to eradicate opium crops that ends in 2005, was aired in April 2002 on the A&E channel in the United States. "I feel that local authorities are eager to communicate with the outside world. But they lack the channels to do so," Han said. "Many misrepresentative reports by Western media have hindered help and support from the international community for the local efforts to uproot the opium crops. I hope to serve as a bridge between the two sides." Photo album "Portrait of Opium," his first colour photo album on the Golden Triangle, was published by China Youth Publishing House in Beijing this January. In the album, Han outlines the long time medicinal use of opium in human history, and the misuse and overuse of the mysterious crop. He also discusses the spreading of opium plantations more than 100 years ago by Western colonialists in what is today's Golden Triangle area. He also covers in detail the daily work and life of local opium farmers and small business vendors, the local authorities' efforts to relocate the farmers from the northern highlands to southern flat lands, and the gradual positive changes in the local economy as substitute cash crops replace the old opium fields. Now Han is busy producing his second documentary film "A Closer Look into the Cradle of Illicit Drugs" and a second book "My Digital Video Diary in the Golden Triangle." Apart from all these projects, Han says that he is, first of all, a volunteer helping promote the planting of substitute cash crops such as sugarcane, Indian rubber trees, fast-growing poplar trees, fruit, rape and rice by the local people, instead of traditional opium poppies. "By helping them, we help ourselves," Han said. |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
