DSL Collection

The Coal Miners Research Since 2004 is focus on Ji Xi area, one of the most important industrial places since 1900, where the artist Zheng Yunhan from, and both his parents still live in this area, both retired 10 year. The work is about personal research back and forward with memories, since 1995 The Coal miners become the major social issue for China, with book from Liu Qingbang , then film maker Li yang?s in 2003, the project is not a simple narrative of what has happened, but also a media piece with interactions.
Li: How do you look at the industrialization of the mineworker and the mining community?
Zheng: The process of industrialization is already over. The process from coal?s first discovery to coal mining is that of the process of coalmine industrialization. Of course, the process has its different phases. As early as China?s Warring States Period, minorities have been living in these areas. In the 1960s, coal began to be mined systematically, and residents became miners. As mining technology become more and more advanced, the industrialization of the coal region also changes, from primitive mining in caves, to modern machine mining. Throughout the process, technology and mining conditions changed a lot, while the miners were the only group that did not change much. When mining technology was not as advanced as today, miners? living conditions were no doubt miserable, in some cases, even inhumane. During the anti-Japanese war, Jixi was occupied by Japan. The mining methods back then was half-manpower and half machine power. When there was a fire damp explosion, the miners would not be rescued, but buried underground. To put it simply, in the event of a fire damp explosion, the explosion would cause other materials to ignite and the temperature in the mine was very high. (For instance, there are many wood-made pillars and a railway system for carrying the coal through the mines.) When there is a fire damp explosion, many rails became molten metal under the extremely high temperature. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese would seal the mine entrance during any explosion, so that the fire would extinguish itself when the oxygen ran out. This inhumane mining approach is a portrait of the tragic life of the miners.

Even today, the fatality rate among mine workers remains very high, even after all the economic development and advances in civilization.

I still remember one day when I was a child, one day I saw the minefield full of rescue crews on my way to school, just in front of our home, there were many firefighters and emergency vehicles. I was just a child, all the rescue crew wore some astronaut-like orange clothes and carried bizarre equipment, it was something different, but the grown-ups all looked serous, and there were sirens everywhere. When I got to school, there were few students and I thought my classmates had skipped class; I understood later that there was a fire damp explosion in the minefield with many casualties, many whom were families or relatives of my classmates. They all went to the mine entrance to wait for any updates about the accident. In a mining community like ours, most people know each other. With an accident like this (although it is not the accident with the greatest number of casualties), the entire mining community was grieved for a long time.

In my memory, during that time even the air smelled sorrowful. While we are enjoying the convenience that electricity has brought us, many miners are sacrificing their lives, and others are taking the risk with very low salary. After a day?s work, their faces are dark, with white teeth and simple and honest smiles on their faces. They don?t like to be photographed, since they think they are ugly. But actually, they are the most respectful at that time.

Before industrialization, humans were close to nature in most of their work and life. Human relations were also simpler and more sincere. Human beings do not possess much destructive power toward the nature, while nature has much control over human being. Under such circumstances, harmony between people is a necessity to deal with challenges from rough natural environments. However, after industrialization, human beings are incorporated into the system of industrialization, and became a major factor fueling the process of industrialization. As a result, human being started to pursue materialistic interests, human relations become more and more apathetic and the nature of humanity started to change.

Industrialization itself is very aggressive. The process of industrialization is a process of consuming natural resources at an unprecedented rate. Therefore, the natural environment was the most effected. These two hundred some years since the beginning of industrialization mark the period where the natural environment was the most damaged in the entire history of human development. Even Japan, an island country, experienced sand storms from the continent this year. My father told me that when he first came to the mining community, the grass was taller than even the people, and he had to arm himself if he was on a night shift because there were wolves around the area. Now, even a single bird is a rare sight here.

Li: What kind of impact do you think the media has had on you?

Zheng: It may be possible to invite the viewers to Jixi, or bring the whole of Jixi to Beijing. But can I take the audience to the Jixi ten years ago, or bring Jixi back to Beijing? The special characteristics of the media help me a lot in constructing a timeframe, which enables the artwork to be observed directly and easily. It makes it possible to deliver multi-dimensional information with various factors including time, photos, videos, stories etc. All the factors are incorporated within this single media and develop into a single unit. Further more, adding on the interaction with the viewers, their relationship to the viewer becomes more meaningful.

Li: Could you please tell us something about your family?

Zheng: My father was born in 1947 in Chengzihe of Jixi. In 1965 he was enrolled into the Coal Mine School run by the Mining Bureau. In 1968, he graduated and worked as a mine technician. In 1969, he was injured and was transferred to study in Jixi?s Medical School. He worked in local hospital until his retirement in 2002.

My father is a typical community doctor (in my opinion). He worked in the department of epidemics prevention. It?s my impression that he can?t really treat any particular disease, but it seems that he knows about every kind of disease. Because of his job, I spent a lot time in the hospital. For some time, I was either in school or in the hospital. My classmate always said that I smelled like the hospital.

In the hospital where my father worked, I learn a word called ?humane rescue.? One day, while I was playing with other kids in the hospitals, all the nurses in the hospital rushed outside for something. We followed to see what had happened. At the gate of hospital, there was a truck, typically used to carry coal. Down from the truck, the nurses carried several miners who were covered in blood. I realized something must have happened in the coal mine. Back then there was only one operation room in the hospital, so my father?s office had to be converted into an operation room as well. One doctor, who was always joking around, looked very serious then. He cleared out everything in the office in no time, then tables were brought into and sanitized, and the injured miner was stripped and cleaned. I was peeking in from around the corner, and when I saw the knife cut into the chest of the miner, I thought blood would spurt out as I had seen in movies, but it only came a little from the cut. Then the nurse noticed me and closed the curtain. Later, when I asked my father whether the miner survived, my father said the organs of the miner were all destroyed. It?s just a ?humane rescue.? Later, four out of the five miners died.

For a long time, I thought the term ?humane rescue? was only for those who were bound to die.

My mother was born in 1949 in Liaomao of Jixi. In 1968, she was sent to work in the rural areas and became a political officer in her unit. Using the jargon of the time, you could say her ?politically ideology was correct.? In 1973, she was enrolled into the Normal School of the Jixi Mining Bureau. After graduation, she worked in a high school as an English teacher until she retired in 1993. It was a bitter time for my mother. For six years, the Jixi Mining Bureau didn?t pay any of their employees? salary. Even during the Chinese New Year, they just arranged a bag of flour and a bag of sugar as a monthly wage for each family. If you didn?t pick them up, you were no longer entitled to the wage anymore. Back then, my younger brother and I were all in school. My mother had to go out working in other place to support our family and she suffered a lot. For a family which depended purely on wages, it?s unthinkable to spend several years without any stable income. For ten years, my mother worked in various places in Jixi, Jidong, Haerbin and Beijing.

Li: How did interpersonal relationships change during this period? How do you perceive these changes? Confronted with the transformation of community relationship and social interactions, how did local people make their own choices?

Zheng: I think there were two phases of change. The first was the period of economic reform, and the other was that six-year period when workers didn?t get any wages. The impact of economic reform upon Jixi was far less profound than the coastal area, but its impact on people?s mentality is evident. To me, the impact of the six-year period of no wages was far more profound. I?d say the impact was overwhelming. It completely overthrew the traditional idea of having a stable job and being paid regularly. Many people had to leave to try their luck. In this period, the general living environment was also greatly influenced by a high crime rate. Men resorted to violent crimes, while many women went in for prostitution. Relationships between people became chaotic and disastrous.

In the past, whenever we made a good meal, dumplings for instance, we would share some with our neighbors. Our neighbors would do the same for us. If anything happened to a family, nobody would hesitate to help. But if you were to take the same situation today, if anything happened to a family others might take it as something they could make fun of. People have become more and more apathetic towards each other.