Photographer Documents China's Disappearing Mid-Century Elephant Slides

Photographer Zhang Kechun has embarked on a nationwide project to record China's vanishing concrete elephant slides, relics from the mid-20th century. These playful public sculptures, once common in parks and residential areas, are being demolished as cities modernize. Zhang's photographic journey has taken him across multiple provinces, capturing the slides in various states of decay and abandonment. The structures, typically featuring a staircase leading to a slide through an elephant's body, were popular from the 1950s through the 1980s. Their disappearance reflects rapid urban development and changing aesthetics in Chinese public spaces. Zhang's work serves as an archival effort, preserving visual records of these disappearing cultural artifacts before they're completely gone. The project highlights how everyday design objects from recent history can become endangered heritage.