After a recent scandal, street photographers face backlash for invasion of privacy and targeting young women
On a Saturday evening in June at Beijing’s upmarket Taikoo Li Sanlitun mall, Li Shaobai spots another target. “There goes a beautiful woman,” he says, abruptly breaking off his conversation with TWOC, readying his heavy black camera, and bustling forward to get a good angle of the young, slim, blond-haired woman.
Soon, a group of ten male photographers has gathered around the woman as she strides around in the sunshine in sparkling blue jean shorts, a tiger-print crop top, and high-heeled khaki boots. Li and his fellow photographers tail her every move for over an hour as she pauses to pose at different photogenic spots in the busy outdoor shopping complex.
Sanlitun is crawling with dozens of these photographers engaged in jiepai (街拍), or “street photography,” on most weekends. They are typically middle-aged or elderly men, hanging around the outdoor mall with (often high-end) cameras around their necks and a bag for their lenses over their shoulders. Just as ornithologists look to the skies for the rarest birds, they scour the crowds of shoppers for attractive subjects to snap. Similar groups are found at other luxury shopping locations: Shanghai’s Nanjing Road and Anfu Road, Chengdu’s Taikoo Li and Chunxi Road, Hangzhou’s Hubin Pedestrian Street and Kerry Center, and Beijing’s 798 art district.
Elizabeth Gonzales is an editorial intern of The World of Chinese. She is currently a graduate student at the John Hopkins University - Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies. She enjoys learning about Chinese history, culture, and language.
