By Angela Whited

English Professor Wang Ping’s photo exhibit, “Behind the Gate: China in Flux after the Flood of the Three Gorges Dam” opens tonight with a reception in the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Gallery at 7:00 p.m.
Wang’s photography covers the construction of the Three Gorges Dam through its completion and the impact it has had – and continues to have – on the people, the wildlife and the geography of the Three Gorges along the Yangtze River. The exhibit includes a video installation and text, written by Wang, detailing the events captured in her photographs.

The photos were taken during Wang’s trip to China last summer with Macalester’s International Faculty Development Seminar and a return trip she took this January. Her ongoing research deals with the changing face of the Chinese countryside, in which the Three Gorges Dam plays a significant role.

According to Wang, 40 percent of the budget for the dam project funded the displacement and relocation of migrants. Though this should have provided significant amounts funding for each family, multiple levels of bureaucracy left individuals only a few thousand yuan, which totals less than $700.

Wang said she hopes to sell the photographs and that the proceeds will assist families displaced by the dam project.
For more information about the exhibit contact Art Center Curator Gregory Fitz at [email protected] or Wang at [email protected].