Sim Chi Yin In the middle of the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou, new high-rise apartment blocks shimmer and tower over a slum being torn down. Guangzhou, China. 2014.
“Rulers’ impulse to control nat
(...) ure and society has been evident since the beginning of human civilization, but has usually been held in check by religious taboos or technological limitations. Over the past hundred years, the rise of science and the authoritarian state has obliterated those boundaries, and led to a complete reforming of our ecological, political, and social landscapes. As the anthropologist James C. Scott puts it, these projects to flatten and organize are designed to make society more ‘legible’ – easier for governments to read and thus to control. In his book Seeing Like a State, Scott shows how, in countries like China, the state knows no limits, leaving technocrats free to reimagine the country according to their vision.”
– Sim Chi Yin © Sim Chi Yin | Magnum Photos
