We have attached the interview below, but please proceed to the link for the full article.

Visualising the Poverty Line

 

Stefen Chow.
Photograph: Ong Ee Lynn

By Jeffrey Hardy Quah

What does it mean to be poor, really?

That was the question photographer Stefen Chow asked when he started The Poverty Line. The undertaking is unusual for a photography project, because Chow isn’t looking for answers through moving portraits or barren landscapes. Instead he’s relying on cold, hard numbers. The Poverty Line strips away emotion in favour of a bare-bone analysis, distilling poverty to an issue of choice: What foods can the world’s poor afford to live on, day to day?

Together with his wife, economist Lin Hui-Yi, he set about figuring out what a country’s poverty line is in the form of a per-person, per-day rate. Armed with that figure, the Beijing-based Malaysian creates a visual portrait of what food items someone living on the poverty line can afford. The result is a stark portrayal of the choices that the poor are limited to every day. Chow and Lin began with China in November 2010, eventually covering 16 countries across five continents by the end of 2011.

The ongoing project has been an immense success, garnering international attention and winning the 2011 Arles Photography Open Salon. His photography was exhibited in the prestigious Galerie Huit in Arles, France, and more recently in China House and Alliance Française de Penang in George Town. We spoke to Chow about the venture and what it means to him.

How did The Poverty Line come about, and what sort of research did you have to do? 
There have already been very inspirational works done by my contemporaries, who document poverty head on. I wanted to add to this discussion, but in a different way. I wanted to come up with a very simple understanding of what being poor means.

I think the full picture of the poverty line is too complicated for a layman like me to really understand. Lin is an economist and she does market research as a profession. My expertise is in photography, perhaps storytelling. We decided to collaborate because The Poverty Line, at the heart of it, is about statistics and economics. I didn’t want it to merely be a creative way of approaching this subject. It’s very important to allow us to have as factual a view of the poverty line as possible.

The Poverty Line China: 3.28 yuan. Steamed buns.
Photograph courtesy of Stefen Chow.

What Lin did was, she went through layers and layers of statistics. For example, when we started with China, we found that there are three different poverty lines: one by the government of China, one by the World Bank and one by a Chinese non-profit organisation (NGO). It took a while for her to measure the pros and cons of each of them and determine the poverty line. Typically, she takes about one week to research a single country.

I met someone from the economic board in Malaysia. When I read the entire statement on how the Malaysian poverty line is derived, she agreed with it wholeheartedly, because the research was done correctly.

Once Lin comes up with the amount, I would source for the cheapest goods available.

As you did your research, was there anything that you discovered that you didn’t expect to find?
Yes. I must say that I had a lot of assumptions about what being poor means. My friends and I were assuming that “the poor” would refer to people who are homeless, who are jobless, who perhaps made some wrong choices or were given some very poor starts in life.

And I was wrong. In India, the poverty line was at about 50% of the entire population. So we’re talking about 400 million to 500 million people who are defined as poor. In Japan, the poverty line was set at about 19% of the population. Even if you are earning about the equivalent of US$3,000 in Japan, you’re considered poor.

Poverty does not mean you’re homeless, poverty means you are underprivileged and you have limited choices in life, in your own country. Ten dollars a day a person may seem a lot in Malaysia, but that would be the poverty line in Switzerland.

At the same time, I found out that if you are poor, there are certain foods which are a lot cheaper than others. One of the cheapest staples I find in almost every country is potatoes. To my surprise, the price of potatoes in Germany and India are about the same.

But once you go into meat, processed food or food served by others, your options become very limited. In China, out of about 100 items, I could only get about two meat items. In Madagascar, India or Nepal, you virtually cannot get meat anywhere if you’re poor.

The Poverty Line France: €5.60. Beef.
Photograph courtesy of Stefen Chow.

You said you used data from government departments, NGOs and the World Bank. Do you find a big discrepancy between the three?
Yes, there is. The poverty line in China, if we were to use China’s national statistics, is set at 3.49 yuan, which is about US$0.49. At this amount, two per cent of China’s population, which is about 20 million people, fall below the poverty line.

But the World Bank’s figure is actually US$2 a day, compared to US$0.49 a day. What’s the difference? The difference is saying there are 20 million poor people in China versus 400 million.

Do you know why there’s a difference?
The World Bank basically divides the world into two parts: the developing world and the developed world. The developing world is bunched together in the same basket. But China argues that it is not Africa. And I think there are different calculations on what poverty entails. In the developing world, it’s usually on a caloric measure: How much do you have to pay to get 2,000 calories a day?

Within China itself, the people know nothing about the World Bank figure. And the figure is rarely used, because it’s the same figure used for the African continent and for India, and prices are different.

In the end we decided to go with the national statistic, which is given by the Chinese government. Whether it’s biased or not is not something we will address, but based on the amount of research we have done, the national figure seems to be more accurate.

There are different definitions of the poverty line; there can be statistics that can seem artificially low, and others where you’d think someone would simply not be able to survive on that amount. In the end, interpretation is really dependent on the viewer.

The Poverty Line Malaysia: RM4.17. Instant noodles.
Photograph courtesy of Stefen Chow.

Poverty itself is a sensitive topic in a lot of countries. In Hong Kong, the government actually claims there is no poverty. In Japan, the word poverty was never mentioned until 2007, when they announced: Yes, there is actually a poverty line, and it’s this amount. Suddenly, nearly 20% of the population found themselves to be poor.

Which countries are you working on now?
Right now we have not really thought about where we want to go, because up to this point everything has been sort of self-funded; I’ve been riding on commercial projects. I want to go to South America, because that’s where The Poverty Line has not reached. And I really want to go to the main continent of Africa because if you talk about poverty, that’s where it really is. Closer to home, countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos come to mind.

The Poverty Line has been done in five continents so far. If we reach out to as many people as possible, it’ll be great. We intend for this to be a lifelong project, because the poverty lines change, just as time changes. We hope to be able to continue with this project for as long as I can take a picture.

If we could effect change, that would be marvellous. But that’s not really our intention. The body of work is just a vehicle to start a discussion on poverty itself. Quite a few organisations have approached us, and I think everyone wants to bring this to the masses. The Poverty Line is bigger than who I am as a photographer.

Shot in Beijing.

6.30元人民币，1.00美元，1.28亿人口。

拍摄于北京。

Since its earliest definition of CNY 100 in 1978, China’s poverty line has been adjusted over 20 times, mostly due to inflation adjustments. The poverty line definition of CNY 2,300 was announced at the end of November 2011, and is nearly double of the immediate preceding poverty line of CNY 1,274. Under the new definition, there are an estimated 128 million rural poor, nearly one-tenth of China’s population.

The latest change signifies certain socio-economic-political alignment, with China’s poverty reduction efforts seen as contributing to economic development, political stability, ethnic unity and social harmony. The current poverty line has also been positioned as bringing China closer to the international definition, as set by the World Bank, of USD 1.25 per day at 2005 prices. While the change in itself was largely seen as a positive step, ensuing media and public discussions also raised concerns about food inflation and uneven regional growth.

Note: Latest available standards and exchange rates were taken as of April 2012, when the photography was undertaken.

Understanding More

China raises poverty line by 80 pct to benefit over 100 mln

Poverty Hidden by the Poverty Line

Economist Article on China’s Poverty Line

了解贫困线：中国 (2012年4月)

截至2012年4月，中国的贫困线，转换成按每人每天计算，是6.30元人民币（1美元或0.75欧元）。该数据建立在中国人均年收入2300元人民币的国家贫困线上。标准和汇率时效自照片拍摄时。照片摄于北京。

从1978年时人民币100元的最早定义到现在，中国的贫困线已经调整了20次以上，主要是因为通胀。2011年11月底公布了2300元贫困线的定义，这几乎是最近一次之前1274元贫困线的两倍。在新定义下，估计有1.28亿农村贫困人口，几乎中国人口的1/10。

最近的变化体现了中国经济政治的立场，脱贫工作对于经济发展、政治稳定、民族团结以及社会和谐发挥着巨大作用。现时的贫困线亦同时把中国定位于更接近世界银行制定的日均1.25美元的国际定义。虽然贫困线变化本身是正面的，但是随后的媒体和公众也讨论对通胀及地区发展不平衡表示关注。

Shot in Arles.

In 2008, France’s poverty rate was 13%, totaling about 8 million people. Poverty rates are highest among single parent families, people living alone, and large families. In its national approach to fighting poverty, from 2007-2012 France targeted a long-term reduction of the poverty rate by one-third, as well as a 15% reduction in the number of people subject to poor living conditions, and a 10% reduction in the proportion of people living in unemployed households.

France follows the EU relative poverty line, defined as 60% of the population’s median income. It also looks at poverty in terms of living conditions and the level of employment in households. Poverty figures are tracked by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), which conducts the annual taxable income survey and five-yearly family budget survey, and collaborates with Eurostat on the EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).

Note: Latest available standards and exchange rates were taken as of November 2011, when the photography was undertaken.

Understanding More

Poverty Definition

French National Reform Programme 2011-2014

Household Expenditure Patterns

Working Poor in Europe – France

Shot in New York.

In 2010, the USA’s poverty rate was 15.1 %, with 46.2 million people earning under the poverty line. This number is the highest in the 52 years that the poverty estimates have been released, revealing the impact of the economic recession especially on working-class families. About one-third of the poor were from suburban areas, and 22% of American children under 18 years old were considered poor.

The national poverty line was originally developed in 1963-1964 based on a nutritionally adequate diet. Different poverty threshold rates are set for different household structures, involving pretax income not including noncash benefits. Official poverty data is published by the Census Bureau, while many government aid programs use other poverty measures.

In September 2011, after the release of the 2010 annual poverty data, public discussion arose surrounding uneven wealth distribution and whether the measure accurately portrayed poverty conditions. Subsequently, the Census Bureau introduced a new supplementary measure in November 2011, which accounts for other aspects such as tax payments, work expenses, and geographic adjustments for housing cost differences.

Understanding More

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States: 2010

The Changing Face of Poverty in America

The Census Bureau’s Supplementary Poverty Research 2011

Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the Census

We are in the midst of the installation at the Caochangdi Photospring 2012, and we are excited with the space and concept so far. Three series will be featured: The USA poverty line, the French poverty line and the Chinese poverty line. Take a look at the pictures below. Thanks to all the volunteers who have spared their precious time to make these possible.