Description
We hear news reports of the rise of China and its sleepless economy, often with sinister undertones supposed to alarm us. The reality can look very different. German photographer Bernd Hagemann has long been fascinated by China and its people. He carries his camera at all times, because on every street corner you can find people napping in the strangest positions and situations, even snoring in deep slumber.
โWhen China wakes, she will shake the world,โ warned Napoleon. This may be true. But letโs not forget that hardworking people need their sleep too.
MEDIA ATTENTION
โAn amateur photographer gained a global following by taking snaps of slumbering mainlandersโ โ South China Morning Post
โChinese show the art of extreme napping: A German photographer has spent six years taking photographs of Chinese people sleeping in any position and situation.โ โ Daily Telegraph
โChinaโs passion for the siesta is captured at Sleeping Chinese, where Shanghai photographer Bernd Hagemann has put up over 700 photographs of Chinese sleeping in seemingly impossible positions: under trucks, on shopping carts, scooters and butcher slabs, vividly illustrating the millions of weary masses who helped power the nationโs economic rise. On his site โ which has attracted almost half a million visitors โ Mr. Hagemann wrote that he started his site to show the outside world the less threatening side of Chinaโs rise.โ โ Wall Street Journal
โIn a country with a billion people, it can be hard to find a place to lay your headโ โ Daily Mail
โThe accepting social attitude towards people sleeping deeply and soundly everywhere made him, a foreigner, realize that perhaps the China Story featuring only the economy and money was incomprehensive and unjust. Therefore, he began to capture a different China with his camera, the placid, receptive and changeable China that fascinated him.โ โ Peopleโs Daily
