Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

  • Portfolio
  • About
  • Contact
  • Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area

Search Results

Refine Search
Match all words
Match any word
Prints
Personal Use
Royalty-Free
Rights-Managed
(leave unchecked to
search all images)
Next
334 images found

Loading ()...

  • Uniformed restaurant workers carry baskets of food from the kitchen for diners. They pass under a canvas sheet that shows a restaurant with people eating.<br />
<br />
All over China, young architects design buildings that are just experiments: throw in a bit of classical modern, a little Prairie style, a few Roman columns. This restaurant feels like you are sitting inside the restaurant – inside the restaurant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176304-1.jpg
  • Uniformed restaurant workers carry baskets of food from the kitchen for diners. They pass under a canvas sheet that shows a restaurant with people eating.<br />
<br />
All over China, young architects design buildings that are just experiments: throw in a bit of classical modern, a little Prairie style, a few Roman columns. This restaurant feels like you are sitting inside the restaurant – inside the restaurant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176304.jpg
  • Guangzhou has huge live reef fish restaurants that have 3 or 400 chinese chefs and live crocodiles on the floor of the mall-like area outside the restaurant. The crocs mouths were taped shut, and they would be meals soon, but people would be walking along, talking on their cell phones, not paying attention and trip over live, hissing, charging crocodiles.
    GFHK_20060331_02988.tif
  • A model dressed in white shorts and tall boots sits on a hood of a car while a man admires the headlight at China International Automobile Exhibition. The event began in Guangzhou in 2003 and is one of the largest international auto shows in China. <br />
<br />
This event has an exhibition ground measuring 85,000 square meters and it filled eight exhibition halls. Over 370 exhibitors from 20 other countries and regions, took part in this exhibition, which was covered by more than 1,600 news reporters representing upwards of 510 TV and radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and online media at home and abroad. 120,000 people attended.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176563.jpg
  • A woman and children stand in line at the check-out of the first Sam's Club store in China.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-9.jpg
  • A man tries out a chair at a Sam's Club store in China. The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
This is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China.” <br />
<br />
In China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176307.jpg
  • Elysee Yang, owner and designer of Zemo Elysee with a shirtless male model in a small shop that sells fashions off the Sanlitun bar street, a nightlife strip popular with expatriates.<br />
<br />
he number of women entrepreneurs in China is growing. About three in ten businesses in China are women owned and, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, women account for one-quarter of total China-based entrepreneurs .
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176478.jpg
  • Yvonne’s boutique spas in Shanghai offer 13 types of facials, plus a chocolate pedicure for $48. Her father escaped China in 1949 with his family although two siblings died.<br />
<br />
She has the Diva life designing her own furniture, spa, and clothes. Yvonne spends the morning at the fabric market and meeting with her tailor, and then goes to her office. But the main reason she started the spa is so that she can have hours of spa treatments any day she likes.<br />
<br />
The number of women entrepreneurs in China is growing. About three in ten businesses in China are women owned and, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, women account for one-quarter of total China-based entrepreneurs as of 2017.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176419.jpg
  • A woman pushes a shopping cart by a wall of televisions that are all tuned to a show featuring puppy dogs in a Sams Club. The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
This is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China.” <br />
<br />
In China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176310-4.jpg
  • A woman with a pink umbrella is surrounded by neon-colored advertisements in Sams Club. The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
This is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China.” <br />
<br />
In China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176310-3.jpg
  • Families shop at Sams Club. The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
In China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. <br />
<br />
This is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China.” <br />
<br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176310-2.jpg
  • Workers scan and bag purchases for shoppers at Sams Club. The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
This is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China.” <br />
<br />
In  China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176309.jpg
  • Shopping carts full of plastic bags surround lunch tables at Sams Club in Shenzhen The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
In China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. And there was very little plastic packaging.<br />
<br />
This is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China.” <br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176309-1.jpg
  • Clerks watch over counters looking for shoppers at Sams Club. The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
In China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.<br />
<br />
This is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China."
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176307-2.jpg
  • A clerk talks with a young girl riding a bicycle through Sams Club. The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
In China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. <br />
<br />
Shenzhen is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China.” <br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176307-1.jpg
  • Yvonne, founder of Diva Life, looks in her closet trying to decide what to wear for the day—she rarely wears the same outfit twice. <br />
Her boutique spas in Shanghai offer 13 types of facials, plus $48 chocolate pedicures. <br />
<br />
Her father escaped China in 1949 with his family,  but tragically, two siblings died in the crossing. Yvonne’s family is typical of the Chinese who wanted to get out when it was bad and fortunate to get back in when things improved. <br />
<br />
Yvonne lives the Diva life, designing her own furniture, spa, clothes, etc. spending the morning at the fabric market and meeting with her tailor before going to her office. But the main reason she started the spa is so that she can have a couple hours of spa treatment any day she likes.<br />
<br />
The number of women entrepreneurs in China is growing. About three in ten businesses in China are women owned and, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, women account for one-quarter of total China-based entrepreneurs.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143440.jpg
  • Young people are doused with water as men engage in a water fight at China Folk Culture Villages in Shenzhen.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176301-2.jpg
  • Young people are doused with water as men engage in a water fight at China Folk Culture Villages in Shenzhen.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176301-1.jpg
  • A rear view mirror reflects a model looking through a car window at an automobile exhibition. The 3rd China International Automobile Exhibition attracts young men to see the cars and a model that is reflected in a mirror.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176562.jpg
  • The Window on the World amusement park in Shenzhen allows Chinese to travel the world in an afternoon. Behind “Mount Rushmore” in this photo, actors dress as Africans in huts and Egyptians at the Great Pyramids of Giza. Historically, during Mao, Chinese have not been able to travel, but for now they can look at the “Eiffel Tower” and “Mount Rushmore” at Window on the World. <br />
<br />
Because of China’s one-child policy, instituted in 1978, this is the first generation in the world’s history in which a majority are single children, a group whose solipsistic tendencies have been further encouraged by a growing obsession with consumerism, the Internet, and video games. At the same time, today’s young Chinese are better educated and more worldly than their predecessors. Whereas the so-called Lost Generation that grew up in the Cultural Revolution often struggled to finish high school, today around a quarter of Chinese in their 20s have attended college. The country’s opening to the West has allowed many more of its citizens to satisfy their curiosity about the world: some 37 million will travel overseas in 2007. In the next decade, there will be more Chinese tourists traveling the globe than the combined total of those originating in the U.S. and Europe.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176285.jpg
  • Yvonne’s boutique spas in Shanghai offer 13 types of facials, plus a chocolate pedicure for $48. Her father escaped China in 1949 with his family although two siblings died.<br />
<br />
She has the Diva life designing her own furniture, spa, and clothes. Yvonne spends the morning at the fabric market and meeting with her tailor, and then goes to her office. But the main reason she started the spa is so that she can have hours of spa treatments any day she likes.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176419-1.jpg
  • Live crocodiles with their mouths taped shut are ignored by shoppers outside the Yumin Restaurant in a Guangzhou mall.  <br />
<br />
The huge, live reef fish restaurant employs 400 Chinese chefs that prepare the critters as meals, but people walk by talking on their cell phones unaware and trip over live, hissing, sometimes charging crocodiles. <br />
<br />
The pricey, exotic meat—steamed, braised, or stewed—is believed to cure cough and prevent cancer. “People don’t care about the cost,” says manager Wang Jianfei, “they just care about health.”
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143433.jpg
  • Live crocodiles with their mouths taped shut are ignored by shoppers outside the Yumin Restaurant in a Guangzhou mall.  <br />
<br />
The huge, live reef fish restaurant employs 400 Chinese chefs that prepare the critters as meals, but people walk by talking on their cell phones unaware and trip over live, hissing, sometimes charging crocodiles. <br />
<br />
The pricey, exotic meat—steamed, braised, or stewed—is believed to cure cough and prevent cancer. “People don’t care about the cost,” says manager Wang Jianfei, “they just care about health.”
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143433-1.jpg
  • A young woman is doused with water as men engage in a water fight at China Folk Culture Villages in Shenzhen.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176301.jpg
  • Elysee, owner and designer of Zemo Elysee fashion shop with models.<br />
he number of women entrepreneurs in China is growing. About three in ten businesses in China are women owned and, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, women account for one-quarter of total China-based entrepreneurs.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176593.jpg
  • A romantic embrace on the street along the Bund during October Holiday week in the Puxi side of Shanghai where this couple is one of the lucky ones. “Bare Branches”—a phenomenon where a boy just cannot find a girl is a social problem in China. <br />
<br />
According to the 2010 census, there were 118.06 boys born for every 100 girls. For the population born between 1900 and 2000, it is estimated that there could be 35.59 million fewer females than males.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176439.jpg
  • Yvonne, founder of Diva Life, cooks over a flame in her kitchen.  Her boutique spas in Shanghai offer 13 types of facials, plus $48 chocolate pedicures. <br />
<br />
Her father escaped China in 1949 with his family,  but tragically, two siblings died in the crossing. Yvonne’s family is typical of the Chinese who wanted to get out when it was bad and fortunate to get back in when things improved. <br />
<br />
Yvonne lives the Diva life, designing her own furniture, spa, clothes, etc. spending the morning at the fabric market and meeting with her tailor before going to her office. But the main reason she started the spa is so that she can have a couple hours of spa treatment any day she likes.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143440-1.jpg
  • People stop to read profiles of prospective partners that are posted on walls and trees. Singles try to find partners at an event in an amusement park sponsored by a web site (www.juedui100.com). There are so many postings that they have to be changed every few hours. <br />
<br />
The president of the company, says that she counsels folks about going for love over stability but no one listens. She says they all want to find someone with a good job, a house, and a car before worrying about loving them or not. <br />
<br />
Even with this counseling, there is a surreal scene where young singles get up on an AstroTurf stage and recite their particulars: "My name is John, I am 28 years old and I have a condo with two bedrooms. I make X amount of money a year, and I have a 2006 Volkswagen golf with a garage."<br />
<br />
This is backed up by a China Daily report: "If you’re a single male living in Beijing, you need to make a mental note of this figure: 1,068,000. No, it’s not the lottery payoff you dream you’ll win next week. It’s the number of yuan you’ll need to shell out to get married. It’s going to take you exactly 12 years to save the sum on the condition that you don’t spend a penny on food, lodging or anything else."
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176465.jpg
  • A man walks on a replica of the Great Wall at Huaxi, a model of rural development.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176499.jpg
  • Young Chinese gather at a pick up club to talk, smoke, dance and find a partner in the Shanghai social scene. <br />
All kinds of people are drawn to the club that also has a reputation for male prostitutes and mistresses to hang out.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176389.jpg
  • A young child runs to the doorway above the staircase of an opulent home in Huaxi.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176513.jpg
  • Rachel is a “headhunter” for the Comfort Class. She is single and lives at home with her parents who were part of one of the worst social experiments in history. Mao unified the country, but then was responsible for the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, countless famines. <br />
<br />
Then, Deng proclaimed, “To get rich is glorious” and opened the flood gates to the “Special Economic Zone” cities on the south coast, creating the largest peacetime human migration in history. Many 20-somethings say that Tiananmen Square had to be put down or it would have hurt Deng’s economic plans and they would not have their nice apartments with flat screens in every room.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176577-1.jpg
  • A Chinese worker in the lobby of Fortune Land International Hotel which has embraced the boutique hotel concept of the U.S., but on steroids. Giant, colorful mushroom banners hang from the lobby ceiling above strange-looking and not always comfortable chair-pods in Beijing.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176460.jpg
  • Rachel is a “headhunter” for the Comfort Class. She is single and lives at home with her parents who were part of one of the worst social experiments in history. Mao unified the country, but then was responsible for the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, countless famines. <br />
<br />
Then, Deng proclaimed, “To get rich is glorious” and opened the flood gates to the “Special Economic Zone” cities on the south coast, creating the largest peacetime human migration in history. Many 20-somethings say that Tiananmen Square had to be put down or it would have hurt Deng’s economic plans and they would not have their nice apartments with flat screens in every room.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176577.jpg
  • Standing in line and dressed in formal wear are some of the 70 couples in the annual Rose Wedding Festival, a mass marriage event.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176367.JPG
  • Reflection in the rear-view mirror of a teenage schoolgirl sitting behind her father in a car.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176355.JPG
  • In an over-the-top, exotic spa, massage parlor, and hotel in the Suzhou Creek area of Shanghai, nude men walk from the locker room through an aquarium tunnel filled with sea turtles and other endangered species. From there they can play ping pong or watch a movie with their family in their bathrobes or meet their mistresses in a discreet room.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176399-1.jpg
  • In an over-the-top, exotic spa, massage parlor, and hotel in the Suzhou Creek area of Shanghai, men walk from the locker room through an aquarium tunnel filled with sharks and other endangered species. From there they can play ping pong or watch a movie with their family in their bathrobes or meet their mistresses in a discreet room.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176399.jpg
  • These older buildings will soon disappear because the property is just too valuable to leave them. In some years, the government cooled the housing market by imposing a 20 percent resale tax. A model can be viewed to see what this block will look like in the future. It is displayed at the City Planning Museum near People’s Square in the Puxi side of Shanghai. The 3D model shows not only the buildings that are already done, but also those planned for the future when these buildings are all torn down.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176420.jpg
  • A couple on a bench with a lake view in front of a replica of the Venus de Milo at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176402.JPG
  • City Planning Museum is near People’s Square in the Puxi side of Shanghai. A massive miniature city displays models that  show not only existing buildings, but also those planned for the future.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176326.jpg
  • Street scene of Beijing, China at dusk with lines of traffic in the road.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-10.jpg
  • View of Shenzhen from the upper floor of an apartment in the city.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-72.jpg
  • View of Shenzhen from the upper floor of an apartment in the city.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-7.jpg
  • Couples shop for furniture at the IKEA store in Shanghai, China that is packed daily, but particularly on Sundays. Consumers have become increasingly willing to purchase home decor as a means of improving their standard of living. Sometimes one can’t maneuver through the aisles.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176337.jpg
  • Photographer Randy Olson stands on a lift to photograph the gate to Wuhan's Iron and Steel plant that has a statue of Mao Tse Tung with arm raised.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176523-11.jpg
  • Photographer Randy Olson stands on a lift to photograph the gate to Wuhan's Iron and Steel plant that has a statue of Mao Tse Tung with arm raised.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176523-12.jpg
  • Photographer Randy Olson stands on a lift to photograph the gate to Wuhan's Iron and Steel plant that has a statue of Mao Tse Tung with arm raised.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176522-1.jpg
  • Employees at technology company eyou.com use a climbing wall embedded partially into the wall of the conference room creating a faux-silicon-valley atmosphere. <br />
<br />
Eyou is an international mobile game publisher founded in Singapore that has partnered with multinational corporations-namely Facebook, Google, Unity and Twitter.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176455.jpg
  • A young woman, lost in thought, sits inside a popular McDonald's restaurant. <br />
<br />
The Chinese food culture has been finely tuned for 3,000 years, but some are more effected than others from the influence of a western food culture.  <br />
<br />
When a steady diet of junk food is consumed over time, many Chinese become overweight which is unlike traditional Chinese practicing customary Chinese eating habits.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176408.jpg
  • A woman and children inspect new products that bombard Chinese consumers daily. Just keeping up with the new air freshener and portable camera can be overwhelming. They are sitting in a city park, Being Hai Park in Beijing where people ride on paddle boats on the lake.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176521-1.jpg
  • Two couples- parents on the left and a newly married couple on the right., eat oranges under a marriage photo hanging on the wall of an apartment in Beijing.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176467.jpg
  • At the A Fun Ti Carnival Restaurant, ethnic dancers, wait staff, performers are all from Xinjiang Province in North West China.
    MM7493_20070427_26797.tif
  • A worker repairs electrical power lines above pedestrians. <br />
<br />
The need for electrical power is great in Shanghai and migrant workers are hired to hook up cables by strapping a high voltage wire around their waist walking on the actual wires that bring the electricity.  <br />
<br />
A coal-fired power plant comes online every four to five days in China that can power a city the size of San Diego. One hundred cities with populations over 1 million faced extreme water shortages. China’s survival has always been built on the notion of a vastly powerful, infallible center. And yet, air pollution contributed by these plants kills 400,000 people prematurely every year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176331.jpg
  • Young people wearing orange t shirts at the counter of a Sams Club. The company also opened the first Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China.<br />
<br />
This is the city where Deng made his famous “to be rich is glorious” speech. The signs that hang overhead in this abundant store proudly announce, “Made in China.” <br />
<br />
In China 17 years ago, the best store was a government “Friendship Store” that displayed a photo of a female employee on the wall with a sign underneath, “Worst Employee of the Month.” The only way you could motivate workers at that time was to shame them. <br />
<br />
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, beauty in China is seen as utilitarian. Cosmetics for instance are a major business in China and women in the China Middle see this as an important part of their lifestyle. Wal-Mart aims for the Comfort Class consumer earning between $5,000 and $20,000 a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176310-1.jpg
  • A steel worker at the Wuhan iron and steel plant.
    RANDY OLSON_WuhanIronSteel.tif
  • Chinese shoppers crowd narrow aisles of the mall in Guangzhou. Young people are great consumers as China moves forward into a modern day society.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-1-3.jpg
  • Two men sit outside a shop on a street that is known for wedding attire where dresses at the doorway lure shoppers inside.  <br />
<br />
Migrant workers in China are mostly people from impoverished regions who move to more urban and prosperous coastal regions in search of work. According to Chinese government statistics, the current number of migrant workers in China is estimated at over 120 million. China is experiencing the largest mass migration of people from the countryside to the city in history with an estimated 400 million by 2025. Many are farmers and farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and factory workers who have been laid off from inefficient state-run factories.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176322.jpg
  • Red-caped Supermen sell phones outside of the Total Fitness Club in the mall in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. There are 900 million cell phones in China and the West has long predicted that economic growth would eventually bring democracy. <br />
<br />
As James Mann points out in his book, "The China Fantasy," the idea that China will evolve into a democracy as its middle class grows continues to underlie the U.S.’s China policy, providing the central rationale for maintaining close ties with an unapologetically authoritarian regime.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-3.jpg
  • A stylish woman dressed in roses on a white dress watches Chinese shoppers crowd the mall on escalators and walkways in Guangzhou. Young people are great consumers as China moves forward into a modern day society.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-1-4.jpg
  • A lighted billboard showing a Chinese couple looms over shoppers at a  mall  in Guangzhou. Young people are great consumers as China moves forward into a modern day society.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-1-2.jpg
  • Chinese shoppers crowd the mall on escalators and walkways in Guangzhou. Young people are great consumers as China moves forward into a modern day society.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176463-1.jpg
  • This couple is training their pet on their friend’s treadmill because they fear if they take the dog outside for a walk, they risk having it beaten to death in front of them by a policeman. Beijing at the time of this photo had a "one dog policy." The dog on the treadmill is a Siberian Husky and police cracked down on large dog ownership. <br />
<br />
Owners of big dogs that live within the sixth ring in Beijing and have an illegal pet have purchased treadmills after the crackdown began. Pets were pulled out of the hands of their crying owners. A group protested in front of the zoo because there was suspicion that some of the dogs were being fed to the tigers. The activists claim dog owners tried to take policemen to dinner to bribe them, but it did not work. They believe the policemen sold some of the nice animals and sent the rest to the zoo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176590.jpg
  • Young people dance under neon lights in the Armani Club in the Liu lin Road area. Bars are a little crazier in south China where there is an abundance of new wealth.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176391.jpg
  • A dancer in green sparkles and fringe drapes a live snake over the shoulders of a male customer at the Fun Ti Carnival Restaurant in Beijing. <br />
<br />
The dancers, wait staff, and performers are all migrant workers from Xinjiang Province in Northwest China. Migrant workers in China are mostly from impoverished regions who go to more urban and prosperous coastal regions in search of work. <br />
<br />
China has been experiencing the largest mass migration in history and people have left the countryside for the cities-perhaps 400 million people by 2025. Many are farmers and farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and factory workers who have been laid off from inefficient state-run factories.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176492-2.jpg
  • A dancer in green sparkles and fringe performs with a live snake at the Fun Ti Carnival Restaurant in Beijing. <br />
<br />
The dancers, wait staff, and performers are all migrant workers from Xinjiang Province in Northwest China. Migrant workers in China are mostly from impoverished regions who go to more urban and prosperous coastal regions in search of work. <br />
<br />
China has been experiencing the largest mass migration in history and people have left the countryside for the cities-perhaps 400 million people by 2025. Many are farmers and farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and factory workers who have been laid off from inefficient state-run factories.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176492-1.jpg
  • Young people dance under neon lights in the Armani Club in the Liu lin Road area. Bars are a little crazier in south China where there is an abundance of new wealth.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176391-1.jpg
  • A dancer in green sparkles and fringe performs with a live snake at the Fun Ti Carnival Restaurant in Beijing. <br />
<br />
The dancers, wait staff, and performers are all migrant workers from Xinjiang Province in Northwest China. Migrant workers in China are mostly from impoverished regions who go to more urban and prosperous coastal regions in search of work. <br />
<br />
China has been experiencing the largest mass migration in history and people have left the countryside for the cities-perhaps 400 million people by 2025. Many are farmers and farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and factory workers who have been laid off from inefficient state-run factories.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176492.jpg
  • The need for electrical power is so great in Shanghai that migrant workers are hired to hook high voltage wires. They strap one around their waist and pull it across an already stressed grid by walking on the actual wires that bring the electricity.  <br />
<br />
A coal power plant contributing air pollution comes online every four to five days in China that can power a city the size of San Diego.  Air pollution contributed by these plants kills 400,000 people prematurely every year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176327.jpg
  • Photographers capture photos of a model looking through a car window at an automobile exhibition.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176561.jpg
  • Couples ride in a long line of flower-decorated convertibles for a mass wedding in Shanghai. They aspire to the ideal of the billboard above them—the one-child family. <br />
<br />
According to the 2010 census 118.06 boys are born for every 100 girls, and experts warn of increased social instability should this trend continue. For the population born between 1900 and 2000, it is estimated that there could be 35.59 million fewer females than males.  In Beijing, for example, newly prosperous residents are snapping up automobiles at a rate of 1,000 a day. The number of vehicles on the capital’s sclerotic roads has doubled in the past five years, to 3 million, or about a million more vehicles than in all of New York City.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176370.jpg
  • A child plays the piano while a woman instructs in the living room of an apartment.<br />
<br />
From Leslie Chang’s story that accompanied these photographs in National Geographic Magazine:<br />
<br />
By the time she was ten, Bella lived a life that was rich with possibility and as regimented as a drill sergeant’s. After school she did homework unsupervised until her parents got home. Then came dinner, bath, piano practice. Sometimes she was permitted television, but only the news. On Saturdays she took a private essay class followed by Math Olympics, and on Sundays a prep class for the middle-school entrance exam and piano lessons. The best moment of the week was Friday afternoon, when school let out early. Bella might take a deep breath and look around, like a man who discovers a glimpse of blue sky from the confines of the prison yard.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176575.JPG
  • Lu, left, pushing a baby carriage, lives with his daughter-in-law and son in an apartment in Shenzhen. The son has a start up GPS business and often works from home. Lu was sent to prison during the Cultural Revolution and tries to keep pace with today’s values, but still has questions about his son’s world. <br />
The “little capitalists” that live with their Cultural Revolution parents often have conflicts of ideology. The older generation thinks in a more Confucian way—never rise above your teacher, never rise above your father, others’ needs are more important than your own.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176300.jpg
  • Kentucky Fried Chicken and other business signage light the busy streets in Guangzhou, which was the first city in China to reach first world status  in 2008.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176410.jpg
  • With construction booming, there is a joke that the "crane" is the official bird of China.  <br />
A coal power plant comes online every four to five days in China that could power a city the size of San Diego.<br />
<br />
A man walking by a window looks down on China International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, one of the largest auto shows on the planet.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176261.jpg
  • Brides numbered 32 through 43 line up in their queue at the Rose Wedding Festival. Seventy couples in this mass marriage ceremony traveled to Century Park for the ceremony. The marriage-age consumer is a prime target for first-world companies. The middle class’s under-30-consumer market alone is estimated to grow to the size of the entire EU market in the next decade.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176371.jpg
  • Boats glide on placid waters of the lake surrounded by high rises and empty stacked chairs in Century Park. The largest park in the Pudong area of Shanghai was built in 1996 and is also known as "Holiday Park."<br />
Part of China's plan for growth is to bulldoze old buildings and make gleaming new high-rise condos for the newly affluent which the Chinese prefer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176342.jpg
  • A resident walks from the balcony inside an upscale house at the Mission Hills Golf Club's housing development.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176281.jpg
  • Seated in a room full of cloth covered chairs,  the “farmer” capitalist millionaires in Huaxi Village, a model farm for the last 45 years meet annually. Even though they are the collective ideal of the capitalist model, they still dress in Mao-ish style outfits and make decisions for the 80 businesses in a socialist forum.<br />
<br />
These “model farmers” were capitalists before it was allowed in China. They started factories, but worked in them secretly (no windows). When government officials came around, all the workers ran out into the fields and pretended to be peasants. They became the first and most successful capitalist exploitation of the collective. Huaxi Village eventually went bankrupt.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176498.jpg
  • A family siting in the kitchen of their apartment has a complicated family life. The grandparents were farmers and lost the land and their occupations to development. If the grandparents did not have a child they would be homeless. Ironically, the same development that took his home now supports their daughter, Ding, who works in the industrial park occupying the land that was once the father’s farm.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176521.jpg
  • A couple walks hand in hand crossing on a pedestrian escalator and walkway.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176348.jpg
  • To everyone's amusement, a small boy in typical infant split pants urinates from a woman's lap. The trousers are traditional for toddlers not yet potty trained.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176511.jpg
  • Men in blue work uniforms stand in a garden watching couples ride in a long line of flower-decorated convertibles for a mass wedding in Shanghai.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176370-2.jpg
  • A weary Chinese middle-class groom-to-be waits on a comfy couch while on wedding shopping street in Guangzhou, China.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176323.jpg
  • A woman carries a tray of glassware while a child plays in the bathroom one afternoon in an opulent home in Huaxi.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176512.jpg
  • From comfortable plush seats, young people watch the entertainment of a stage show including singing and dancing at the Shanghai Orient Rome Holiday Hotel.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176399-4.jpg
  • Lu  lives with his son and daughter-in-law and their baby in a small apartment.  Lu was sent to prison during the Cultural Revolution and tries to keep pace with today’s values but still has questions about his son’s world. The “little capitalists” that live with their Cultural Revolution parents often have conflicts of ideology. The older generation thinks in a more Confucian way—never rise above your teacher, never rise above your father, others’ needs are more important than your own.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176312.jpg
  • A worker helping to prepare for a festival takes a break to sleep in a comfortable chair placed in the middle of a street in Shanghai.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176413.JPG
  • A young girl sits with her parents at the dinner table in their home. <br />
<br />
From Leslie Chang’s story that accompanied these photographs in National Geographic Magazine:<br />
"By the time she was ten, Bella lived a life that was rich with possibility and as regimented as a drill sergeant’s. After school she did homework unsupervised until her parents got home. Then came dinner, bath, piano practice. Sometimes she was permitted television, but only the news. On Saturdays she took a private essay class followed by Math Olympics, and on Sundays a prep class for the middle-school entrance exam and piano lessons. The best moment of the week was Friday afternoon, when school let out early. Bella might take a deep breath and look around, like a man who discovers a glimpse of blue sky from the confines of the prison yard."
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143438.jpg
  • Men smoke and sip drinks at a flamboyant bar in south China that attracts new wealth. In the Baby Face Club in Guangzhou, the bartender sets up a stack of glasses, then pours a flaming liquid over the top to make one of the most popular drinks-a Flaming Lamborghini. <br />
<br />
China’s economic engine will change the world. The “Little Capitalist” class or ”Comfort Class” embraces Deng Xiaoping’s revolutionary proclamation, “To get rich is glorious.” <br />
<br />
After 50 years of pent up frustration and stoically weathering the worst social experiment in history—Mao’s Cultural Revolution—this class is ready to lead the charge for the most voracious consumption on the planet.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143437-2.jpg
  • A  couple stand at a flamboyant bar in south China that attracts new wealth. In the Baby Face Club in Guangzhou, the bartender sets up a stack of glasses, then pours a flaming liquid over the top to make one of the most popular drinks-a Flaming Lamborghini. <br />
<br />
China’s economic engine will change the world. The “Little Capitalist” class or ”Comfort Class” embraces Deng Xiaoping’s revolutionary proclamation, “To get rich is glorious.” <br />
<br />
After 50 years of pent up frustration and stoically weathering the worst social experiment in history—Mao’s Cultural Revolution—this class is ready to lead the charge for the most voracious consumption on the planet.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143437-1.jpg
  • A  flamboyant bar in south China attracts new wealth. In the Baby Face Club in Guangzhou, the bartender sets up a stack of glasses, then pours a flaming liquid over the top to make one of the most popular drinks-a Flaming Lamborghini. <br />
<br />
China’s economic engine will change the world. The “Little Capitalist” class or ”Comfort Class” embraces Deng Xiaoping’s revolutionary proclamation, “To get rich is glorious.” <br />
<br />
After 50 years of pent up frustration and stoically weathering the worst social experiment in history—Mao’s Cultural Revolution—this class is ready to lead the charge for the most voracious consumption on the planet.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143437.jpg
  • Rows of identical two-story villas with tile roofs, manicured lawns and two-car garages show an extraordinary period of development in China. Huaxi Village, seen from the air, was referred to as the "richest village in China." Known for its economic prosperity, it was once honored as a model of socialist economy.<br />
<br />
Huaxi was an agrarian hovel, reachable by dirt roads. Its success is due to one man Wu Renbao, a farmer and village patriarch who got his start in the early days of the Deng reforms by setting up a factory in to make fertilizer spray bottles. As years passed, Wu started factories, and farmers worked in them secretly since they had no windows. When government officials inspected, workers ran out into the fields and pretended to be peasants. They became the first and most successful capitalist exploitation of the collective. <br />
<br />
Farmers Village, founded in 1961, has run a multi-sector industry company that by the early 21st century included over 80 companies. Huaxi Group's iron and steel and non-ferrous metals are the largest source of income, but it also oversees tobacco, textile and real estate and other companies. By 2004, the per capita annual salary of Huaxi villagers reached nearly 42 times the per capita income of farmers in the country. After 2008, Huaxi’s steel industry declined and in 2021, Huaxi Village went into bankruptcy. The villages hopes tourism will be the next booming industry.<br />
<br />
In a throwback to Mao's days, all residents receive free health care, education and pensions-something many other Chinese have lost in the transition to capitalism. It is set up as a working village where everyone works seven days a week and there is little entertainment like bars, internet cafes and has strict social guidelines.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176514.jpg
  • A worker helping to prepare for a festival takes a break to sleep in a comfortable chair placed in the middle of a street in Shanghai.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176413-1.jpg
  • Rachel shops for a new dress to go on an upcoming date. The fashion store called Thre3 is run by her friend on the Bund in Shanghai. Her dressing room opens into a stylish shop and the pod doors take two assistants to close. The green frock has a $2,200 price tag.<br />
<br />
The number of women entrepreneurs in China is growing. About three in ten businesses in China are women owned and, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, women account for one-quarter of total China-based entrepreneurs.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1143439.jpg
  • Exercise on hospital roof top near Wuhan's Iron and Steel plant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176523-32.jpg
  • Schoolbus to gradeschool near Wuhan's Iron and Steel plant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176523-21.jpg
  • Young people dance under a multi-colored lights that glow at a club in Shanghai.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176390-4.jpg
  • Young people dance under a blue glow at a pick up club while others in the crowd watch seated at tables.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176390-1.jpg
  • A woman holds a baby while walking through the door of an adjoining room in a Chinese apartment.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7493_1176297-1.jpg
Next