China (2003-2007)

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Tom R. Chambers spent four years in China (2003-2007) teaching English/Media-Communications and Digital/New Media Art at Sheng Da College (SDC) (Zhengzhou, Henan Province) and Zhaoqing University (ZU) (Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province), respectively. The image examples above show a bit of his coverage throughout this country as a result of his student connections.

China emerged as one of the world's first civilizations, in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, or dynasties, beginning with the semi-legendary Xia dynasty in 21st century BCE. Since then, China has expanded, fractured, and re-unified numerous times. In the 3rd century BCE, the Qin reunited core China and established the first Chinese empire. The succeeding Han dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC until 220 AD, saw some of the most advanced technology at that time, including papermaking and the compass, along with agricultural and medical improvements. The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty (618–907) and Northern Song (960–1127) completed the Four Great Inventions. Tang culture spread widely in Asia, as the new Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and the Horn of Africa. Dynastic rule ended in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution, when the republic replaced the Qing dynasty. China as a whole was ravaged by Japan during World War II, and the subsequent Chinese Civil War resulted in a division of territory in 1949, when the Communist Party of China established the People's Republic of China, a unitary one-party sovereign state on the majority of China, while the Kuomintang-led nationalist government retreated to the island of Taiwan. The political status of Taiwan remains disputed. (Wp)

The photograph below shows Chambers in the field conversing with locals in a village near Zhaoqing University. The young girl is his translator, Shan Shan (Gina). She also translated for many of his digital/new media art classes at the university. This image is one of his favorites out of many taken of him over this four-year period. (Photo by Cho Eunmi.)




Several examples of Chambers street and portraiture work follow:














































































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