It is estimated that of the 24 million people living in Shanghai, 9 million are migrant workers. Living humbly among the emptied Shanghai homes, they help re-build and expand the borders of Shanghai as construction workers, street cleaners, and street vendors.
About 57 percent of China's population (around 796 million people) live on less than $2 a day. Most of China's poverty-stricken live in the countryside. Because of this, China is experiencing the world's largest mass migration of people from it's countryside to the city. Distant cities offer plentiful job opportunities while the migrant workers offer cheap labor that helps fuel economic growth and mass urbanization.
It is estimated that of the 24 million people living in Shanghai, nearly 9 million are migrant workers. The Anhui project explores the beauty and hardships within one of the distant provinces feeding the steady stream of migration into Shanghai.
Remember My Heart is a series exploring the process of displacement and forced migration rapidly unfolding in traditional Shanghai communities due to mass urbanization. Along with the evident physical transformation, this upheaval is playing a vital role in modifying the cultural and social dynamics throughout China. The hidden narratives from within the disappearing shikumen and longtang neighborhoods reveal what will soon become history.
Re : Connecting explores ideas surrounding returning, change, identity, and remembering the past. With her repatriation in 2017, Julie began the project with reference to her own migration back home examining the difficulties as well as the beauty of reconnection.
With return visits to Shanghai, Julie continues to document the process of displacement. The images are created using the GPS co-ordinates from her Remember My Heart series, along with re-connecting with Shanghainese families that have been displaced into new locations.
