Hugh likes to take any opportunity to film interviews while traveling, so when going to a friend’s wedding in Australia in December 2006, he decided to make a number of a pit-stops en route. The first was in China.

Having already organized to work with the help of someone local in the places he couldn’t speak the local language, Hugh packed his camera and got ready to leave for Shanghai. Everything was set to go and then just a few days before his journey to Shanghai the local contact notified Hugh that her grandma got sick and so she couldn’t help with the interviews. She referred Hugh to a young writer she knew who could speak English, a man called Hua.
On the evening of his arrival in China, Hugh met with Hua in the bar of the hotel he was staying in. One of the first things Hua said when he heard about the GPP was this: “I think this is a very enlightened project, but I don’t know if the people in Shanghai will speak to you”.
It looked like the next day might be a tough start to the trip.

Nevertheless Hugh and Hua sat down that night and over some Chinese tea planned the work for the next day so that they could have a chance at interviewing a good cross-section of people around the city.
Not discouraged by his doubts, Hua wanted to rearrange the interview questions in an order that he felt would be better in Shanghai and that is the order the interviews have stayed in ever since.

At 5 o’clock the next morning they went out into the dark grey dawn, ready to try and capture something of the thoughts of the people in Shanghai. The day started with a taxi-ride to the Wanhangdu Rd market.
After trying to talk to several people, Hua approached a market trader who was selling furry hats laid on a blanket by the side off the street. This trader laughed at Hua’s suggestion and was persuaded into giving an interview.

The filming started quietly enough with laughter and good humour from the market trader. Then as a crowd gathered, like a bubble of human energy, a fun, happy atmosphere grew about it. This turned out to be quite an emotional roller-coaster. As the interview continued a woman started shouting at the market trader, seeming to be quite angry towards him for talking with the camera. The atmosphere changed becoming more tense and angry, Hua stayed rock steady and kept interviewing the merchant as the crowd got bigger and louder.

Eventually with a shouting commotion around the interview the team said goodbye to the people in the market and moved on to find a group of women dancing and practicing Tai Chi in a local park. Would this be a calmer encounter…… To see the interview in this storycheck out this link.

Hope you enjoyed a little of our backstory, more tales next week! See you soon,

Xxx

The Global People Project

“Soon after my first thoughts about Global People Project I was invited out to Australia where a friend was getting married. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to kick the project off. Rather than getting a direct flight to Australia, I bought one that allowed for multiple legs so I could stop over in a number of cities around the world to record the initial interviews. I went to China, Japan, Australia and the USA. I worked with local fixers and translators when I didn’t speak the language to ask the questions in the local language and went into the streets to record the first interviews.”