Click for photos from the spread.
I don’t know how I feel about Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia’s spread with Zhang Fan, which were photographed in Tibet.
The shots themselves are gorgeous. Zhang Fan is gorgeous. Tibet is gorgeous. The aspects of Tibetan culture in the photos are gorgeous. It is, simply gorgeous, as it would obviously be, being in Harper’s Bazaar and all. (This does not mean that the content of the photos is in any way, shape, or form “authentic,” however.)
But part of me is a little sickened. Tibet, after all, is not a “stable” “country.” It is rife with internal struggle. Its people are dying. Its culture is dying. You could say that such photospreads help the Tibetan culture remain alive, but it is also an exaggeration of the culture; it turns it on its head and passes it off as “exotic.”
I know quite a few groups that focus on Tibet’s culture, (rightfully) believing that it is an endangered culture that must be kept alive. At a certain point, I have become frustrated with this culture-bent–because it’s not all about prayer flags and mountains and momos and monks. Sure, snag in the ignorant person with gorgeous landscapes and delicious food and this image of peaceful Buddhists, but when is it time to start explaining why Tibetan culture is so important, why it’s endangered, and what we can do to help?
What I’ve seen, from being on the internet (“Honestly, I don’t know anything about Tibet except that people want to free it…” – America’s Next Top Model Cycle 13 contestant Erin) and the encounters I’ve had in real life (“cool jacket… no, I don’t know anything about Tibet, but sure! they should be free!”), is that many people are enamored with the amazing culture of Tibet but few actually know about anything about its politics or history. I guess politics/history just isn’t sexy or “exotic” enough.
Sometimes I want to tear down the prayer flags and burn them, burn the shirts emblazened with quotes by HHDL (burning, as far as I have always been told, is an acceptable way to destroy Tibetan Buddhist objects, as when the object goes up in smoke, its prayers go up with it), shout from the rooftops that NONE OF THIS REALLY MATTERS and show film footage of monks being beaten and photos of murdered Tibetans and Tibetans who arrive in exile snow-blind and frostbitten. This is the ugly truth these peaceful, culture-bent groups won’t show you, for fear of “politicizing” the issue–but many of us know that the personal is always political.
Zhang Fan is apparently Chinese. Why not create a second photospread in which the beautiful, ancient architecture of Tibet isn’t shown, but the shoddy buildings Tibetan nomads have been forcibly reassigned to as part of “modernization” are? Let our beautiful Chinese model be seen physically tearing down an illegal portrait of HHDL and posting a photo of Mao. Let our beautiful Chinese model be shown hanging out of a “tea shop” (brothel) in Lhasa.
Let our beautiful Chinese model be staring into the eyes of the monk whose hand she is holding–let her know his story, share in his pain and his happiness.
Let us all extract ourselves from our exotic settings and familiar backgrounds to look our neighbors in the face and to finally open ourselves to their desperate, joyful words.
Returning Home From Exile 