Have you perhaps run across street vendors selling white champak blossoms (often translated as "magno- lia") at busy intersections, or in sidewalk arcades? Some are middle-aged men, while others are mothers with children in tow. Some seem weighed down with worry, while others find reason to smile. For NT$30, you can buy some blossoms strung together on a piece of metal wire and enjoy their sweet scent all day. So that's all it takes to buy happiness?! And so cheap!
"Yulan Magnolia Flowers" is Taiwan's first-ever photo exhibition on the business of growing and selling white champak. Through the camera, you can see the place of the white champak business in Taiwanese society, and how it reflects the times. Indeed, the business is a window upon our world and the people in it. What the photographer most hopes for is to give the viewer a feel for the diversity of our world, and to engage you in a deeper and more flexible contemplation and dialogue.
Shen Chao-liang
Shen Chao-liang was born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1968. He received a master's degree from the Graduate School of Applied Media Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts. Shen has worked as a newspaper photojournalist, and won the Government Information Office's Golden Tripod Award for Best Photography (magazine category) in 2000 and 2002.
His Reflections of Nan-fang-ao and Taiwanese Cabaret series won the Asia Prize Award in Japan (2004) and Award for Best Foreign Photographer in Korea (2006).
Shen has also published the photobooks YULAN Magnolia Flowers, Reflections of Nan-fang-ao, and BRAND 9-The Creative Ideas of the World's Nine Best-Selling Brands.
Website: www.shenchaoliang.com
Flower seller and child cross paths on the street.
White champak in full bloom on the branch bears little resemblance to the barely budded flowers you normally see for sale on the streets.
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