Xiamen Beach

The island and megacity of Xiamen and the Taiwanese island of Kinmen lie barely six kilometres apart. From the Taiwanese perspective, this is referred to as the Frontline of Democracy. Yet Xiamen lies on the other side of that so-called line, in what is supposedly barbarism. Xiamen is one of China’s four original Special Economic Zones. Established in 1980, it opened its doors to foreign trade and investment, while Beijing largely refrained from interfering in the operations, production and trade of the companies established there. As a result, Xiamen experienced enormous population growth and rapid economic development. Xi Jinping himself has praised Xiamen as an attractive, modern and international city of high quality. It is home to one of China’s most prestigious universities. Anything but barbarism, then. Yet Taiwan lies unmistakably close by. When I photographed this series on Xiamen Beach a few years ago, I was barely aware of what it meant. A few years after making Xiamen Beach, I travelled to Taiwan to better understand its significance within Chinese history. It is a subject that continues to stir deep emotions in China, fuelling a muscular form of Chinese nationalism. It even cost me a Chinese friendship. Once, a geopolitical and military conflict took place here—a conflict that was never resolved and that, with the recent rumblings of war, could flare up again. Xiamen Beach could once more become a frontline. But fortunately, none of that is happening now. Xiamen Beach is simply a beach, much like any other in the world, albeit with a distinctly Chinese character. The noise of the city gives way to the sound of the sea, the murmur of crowds, the kitsch of bad music and the cacophony of amusement parks. The beaches of subtropical Xiamen are places where Chinese construction workers enjoy a day off, where students seek the solitude of the night—or, on the contrary, the company of others. Families with children come here to enjoy themselves in amusement parks, while restaurants fill with the hungry. Here, the temperature is just a little cooler than in the sweltering heat of Xiamen itself. The sea slows down the hectic existence of the perpetually busy Chinese city dweller. Xiamen Beach is a place where you can see the blue sky, where air pollution and the worries of everyday life seem to disappear, if only for a while. In one of the photographs, a young man can be seen pointing at something in the distance. Taiwan is always nearby.