White Elephant

Chenggong is one of China’s many ghost cities. It is also the largest. Almost 100,000 apartments are there in Chenggong, almost all of which remain empty. In order to build this city, villages were demolished, people were forced to sell their lands and leave their homes. The old way of life was destroyed. China has become the world’s largest economy. Investment in infrastructure accounts for much of China's GDP - the country is said to have built the equivalent of Rome every two months in the past decade However the cost of this rapid urbanization cannot only be measured in economic terms. Lives of many are being affected as their homes are being destroyed and they are forced to relocate. Some of them become unemployed with no land to farm on and some even become homeless. It is a big sacrifice. But what is the end result of this sacrifice? This destruction of the self in order to be the best at standards set by someone else? What has it all lead to? It’s waste, the byproduct of aspiration.