Work to Live: Capturing Workers’ Moments of Joy

Text by Hatty Liu

Photography by Xin Ting （辛挺）

Photographer Xin Ting captures workers at their happiest

人生百態，笑最動人

According to an apocryphal story about the late Qing dynasty （1616 – 1911）， the formidable Empress Dowager Cixi invented the practice of smiling for the camera circa 1903.

When Yu Derling， the empress’s French-educated lady-in-waiting， brought back a camera from abroad， the empress believed that the smoke-emitting contraption could steal a person’s soul—so to get her employer to smile， Derling asked her to say “cheese，” which the empress mispronounced as qiezi"（茄子， “eggplant”）. Now， saying qiezi"is a common practice before one gets a photo taken in China.

Compared to the stiff portraits in their home countries， Western missionaries and travelers in China in the early 20th century frequently took photos showing farmers and rickshaw drivers pausing to smile in the middle of their work. One photo dated between 1901 and 1904 at the American Museum of Natural History， titled “Eating Rice， China，” even sparked accusations of forgery due to its subject’s toothy， modern-looking grin.

One explanation for why Chinese were apparently fonder of smiling in photos than Westerners is simply that laborers during that time didn’t know what photography was， so they were just smiling at the foreign visitor. Over 100 years later， photographer Xin Ting has produced a body of work reminiscent of this tradition. Responding to an online photo competition on the theme of “Smile” in 2019， Xin says he became struck by the “ordinary laborers who silently work and are quickly forgotten， and the strength and wistfulness contained in their generous smiles.”

“The composition of these photographs may not be anything special， and perhaps their content isn’t crowd-pleasing， but I truly like them， and like the people in them，” Xin wrote in his blog. “They remind me of a set of lyrics by [Taiwan singer] Jonathan Lee， ‘Ordinary people are the ones who move me the most.’”