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Kernel | Creating the Photogenic City

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A 30-minute ride by high-speed rail from Beijing, Tianjin’s Binhai New Area is home to one of China’s most futuristic-looking architectures. Over the years, the eye-shaped atrium of Binhai Library has attracted millions of visitors, traveling from neighboring metropolises to experience what architects behind the design dubbed a “new urban living room.” The only problem? Some books are so high up the curved shelves that they’re practically inaccessible for readers — but if you take a closer look, these copies on display are either fake, or worse, printed on the bookshelves. Places like Binhai Library are known for being wanghong, or “internet famous.” Wanghong spaces are, in the words of Amy Yueming Zhang, a lecturer in urban planning at the University of Manchester, spots where urban consumers produce “hundreds of similar photos… from the same angle in order to demonstrate that they are keeping up with the trend.” Wanghong spaces — walls, beach resorts, coffee shops, light rail station

Kernel | Creating the Photogenic City Issue 2 nonfiction Creating the Photogenic City written by Tianyu Fang A 30-minute ride by high-speed rail from Beijing, Tianjin’s Binhai New Area is home to one of China’s most futuristic-looking architectures. Over the years, the eye-shaped atrium of Binhai Library has attracted millions of visitors, traveling from neighboring metropolises to experience what architects behind the design dubbed a “new urban living room.” The only problem? Some books are so high up the curved shelves that they’re practically inaccessible for readers — but if you take a clo

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