Basket in the city

Elisa Haberer

Basket Chine Cité interdite Pékin

Un mot sur l'oeuvre

( REF : EHAB002)
This photo comes from the in-depth feature on sport in China, « 1,3 billion athletes » by Elisa Haberer. She produced it before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2007/2008. Elisa travelled all over China for 14 months to tell the story, from a sports point of view, of a country hosting the Olympic Games for the first time. It was an ambitious, long-term project, funded and supported by L’Equipe Magazine, that filled most of a special issue published on 2nd August 2008. Basketball in the Forbidden City, Beijing 篮球
故宫, 北京 Even though table tennis is still managing to hold its position as ‘historical’ leader of sports played in China, in the past 20 years China has become one of the world’s largest basketball courts. This modern, international sport is being played all over the place, in all social and geographical contexts. And the powers that be are never far behind : its greatest champion, the basketball player Yao Ming 姚明, child of a marriage that was arranged by the Communist Party between two professional basketball players, was awarded the title ‘model worker’ for his career in the NBA.

Le témoignage d'Elisa Haberer

« My China » The ambition of this photography project, which was born out of a desire to keep a record of what I saw and felt here, was to work on the details that highlight the differences but also trivialise them. (Elisa lived in Beijing for 6 years). In 2008, year of the Olympics, when all eyes were on the host country, analysing its every move, I thought it would be a good time to immerse myself in Chinese society. Sport is a fantastic vector for crossing geographical, cultural, political and social boundaries, even if in this case it only served as a pretext. Each image tells a smaller story that goes to make up the portrait of China today. This square was usually reserved for soldiers responsible for security in the Imperial City, but that day it had been taken over by players wearing kit that is far removed from the obligatory khaki.
Jean-Denis chose it
A slightly postcard-like photo that takes you on a journey and shows a more modern and fun China than we usually imagine. A classic image but one that works.

Le choix de Jean-Denis

A slightly photo that takes you on a journey and shows a more modern and fun China than we usually imagine.