LIFE PILGRIMAGES
By Tam Wai Ping
Published by Brownie Publishing,
Hong Kong, 2019
From 2005 to 2019, photographer Tam Wai Ping captured people walking in Colombo, Taipei, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and cities in mainland China. Selected photos from the series are carefully compiled alongside reflective essays and traveljournal entries in Tam’s latest book, Life Pilgrimages. Bound under a delicately textured, dark cyan hardcover, the volume ruminates on the cultural chasms that have opened up in these Asian cities as a result of modernization.
In the introduction, Tam notes the gap between “Asian Timing” and “World Timing,” explaining that the former originates from the traditions of small, agricultural economies, which respect and follow natural cycles, whereas the latter is synced with the globalized economy, and thus is driven by the ideal of ceaseless acceleration and expansion. In subsequent photos, Tam questions Asia’s ambitions of “catching up with the
