After a recent look at urban Europeans posing with all they own, this potent look at rural Asian families and their worldly possessions shows stark contrasts but surprising similarities as well.

On the one hand, it is easy to see that their belongings are less polished and current … but on the other hand: it is remarkable just how many modern objects can be found not just in mansions but also mud-hut homes of the relatively-poor Chinese countryside.

Old bikes and a mishmash of dishware and clothing might be spotted alongside a satellite dish, (albeit not a flat screen) television and laptop computer, whether the dwelling of the owners be an apartment building, roadside shack, coastal houseboat or desert yurt.

Huang Qingjun (images via the BBC) titles his series, loosely translated, “Family Stuff” – the years-long project is part artistic, but also part historical: an attempt to capture a moment in time in terms of its beautifully mundane materiality.

One of his observations is that this will, in fact, be history sooner than the people in the pictures probably realize. Though currently cut off from corporate brand culture, the rapid urbanization of China is bringing many of these traditional families into more mainstream, western-style living situations with remarkable speed.

Many of us possess so much stuff it can be hard to quantify what lurks between all of our cupboards, closets, drawers and more. One Swedish photographer set out to document just how many (or few) things a young person today can (and does) accumulate.

The result is this revealing photo series of people with their worldly possessions, shot by Sannah Kvist in the intimate settings of each owner’s space. The set was inspired by a move by Sannah, but also a reaction to an older generation’s periodic assertion that young people cannot manage the same degree of conceptual minimalism or material self-constraint.

And while we may notbewhat we own (RENT songs aside), there is more to each pile and pose than sheer mass and volume – the collections each have a distinct personality, from the specific contents to the way they are composed.

Arguably analogous to the transition toward weighing more as individuals (thanks in part to cheaper, high-calorie fast foods), there is a way in which cheaper, low-quality furniture and other everyday objects makes it all too tempting to accumulate more than we need or even want without realizing it.