THE ISLANDERS

HAINAN, CHINA. The island of Hainan is an outgrowth of communist China in the South China Sea. With 8 million inhabitants it’s the smallest of the country’s provinces and became the laboratory of China’s initial capitalist experiments when Deng Xiaoping opened up the nation to reforms. In becoming a Special Economic Zone there are two sides to life on the island, a mix of a frenetic consumer society and millennia old traditions.