Photo blogger on the Beijing beat
Emily Schreck's daily iPhone shots of China's capital have won 73,000 followers on Instagram
At first glance, "Beijingemily" appears to be a relatively normal online pseudonym. Nothing flashy. No puns. But when it appears on Instagram - a photo-sharing social media application - it is quickly recognised by tens of thousands of people.
For Beijingemily's photos have become an internet phenomenon, giving her 74,000 followers a glimpse of the streets of Beijing.
Emily Schreck, a 24-year-old American, moved to China's capital two years ago and, using an iPhone 4S, began taking pictures of life around her. Her passions are photographing hutongs - narrow alleyways in traditional residential areas - and the people who live there. Her images, captioned in English and Chinese, clearly strike a chord with the following she has built up in a few months.
I came to China right after I graduated from college in Atlanta, Georgia, in the fall of 2010. I took "women's studies" in college, and it was hard to find a job, so I came to stay with my brother who has lived in China for eight years. Now I'm an English teacher at a kindergarten.
I learned in China. When I first came, I had a language-exchange partner for a short period of time. I spoke English with her, she spoke Chinese with me. I learned a lot of simple things. And I got a seat in a band called Christmas, which was started by a foreigner who wrote all the songs in Chinese. They are simple and really silly songs, like there was a song about a trash can - "Trash can, trash can, don't put me in a trash can". Through that, I was able to learn Chinese, because I could memorise the songs.
When I was in college, I had an iPhone 3GS. I made a project on Flickr - a 365-day photo project. Each day I took a picture with my iPhone and posted it on Flickr. It is a pity I didn't finish it. It was about six weeks short of a full year, because I moved to China. Last year, I had a new iPhone 4S, and then I got the free Instagram app. Instagram is a good place to share photos with friends or people you don't know. When I put photos on Instagram, I tag with "Beijing", both in English and Chinese. It's easy for people to search.
They're very special to Beijing. Not many other places have hutongs like Beijing has. I think that's my most favourite thing; that's what China means to me. In China, a lot of cities are like other cities to me; they are not especially Chinese, and hutongs are special. I think it is important to take pictures of hutongs because they are disappearing.
I don't take photos every day, maybe two times a week, but I do post photos on Instagram every day. I take photos with the regular iPhone camera, then edit them [by using special lighting and colour "filters"] later on Instagram.
I write different things in Chinese and English. Giving an example, for a rickshaw photo in the rain that shows a line of rain-cloth-covered rickshaws, the Chinese caption reads: "When you take photos of people in hutongs, are they nice to you?" Usually I keep my distance from people. I never take photos of people right in their face. I ask them in Chinese - usually these people are older people - and they say: "No, no," but they don't really care, because you can see from their response. While taking photos in hutongs, if somebody jumps out and says: "Hey, don't do that", I say "sorry" and leave.
They really like them. If they didn't, they wouldn't follow me. I get a lot of comments like: "Oh, thank you for showing how beautiful China is, because it's my own country, but I never stopped and thought that this is really special and beautiful, because it is just normal to me." I'm very happy to hear that. Generally I give feedback to the comments, but sometimes if I don't understand what they mean, I can't.
No, not at all. I feel really good about having so many followers; I think my photos present China nicely. I feel good to share what I do. Last month, I organised a hutong photo walk behind Jiaodaokou, where there are many hutongs. About 25 people joined, both Chinese and foreign Instagram users. It is kind of challenging to lead a group of 25 people walking and taking photos in hutongs. We tagged all of our photos #hutong walk, so we could see what other people were posting. It was really interesting.
I published 17 iPhone hutong pictures in
magazine's August issue. This month I published some hutong photos in the magazine - they have an "iPhone Gallery" showing people's iPhone photos, so they asked me to give them some of my iPhone pictures. I started a Weibo [microblog] account in June and post photos regularly there,
aside from Instagram. Now I have nearly 1,000 Weibo fans.
All my fans on Weibo are Chinese, so I only put Chinese there, no English. I put more personal photos on Weibo, like my pet rabbit pet, or my new haircut.