China, Portrait of a Country

World, meet China

The People’s Republic seen by 88 Chinese photographers

This book brings together a vast selection of images by Chinese photographers since 1949, giving readers a visual journey across the great People's Republic; edited by esteemed photojournalist Liu Heung Shing, longtime Associated Press correspondent and Time magazine contributor.

In post-Mao China, late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping urged his one billion countrymen to "seek truth from facts." Taking its cue from Deng's overture, China today is the leading economic story of the 21st century. The process by which China navigated the path from periphery to a central position in world affairs dominates the debate about Asia and China's relationship to the western world. Pulitzer-winning photojournalist Liu Heung Shing charts the visual history of sixty years of the People's Republic (1949 to 2008), and along the way aims to illustrate the humanistic course.

Via work by 88 Chinese photographers, this collection of images shows how the Chinese people have blossomed in spite of enduring previous decades of extraordinary hardship. When China opens the curtain at the summer Olympics in 2008 and the world’s focus falls upon Beijing, these photographs will serve to map out the remarkable road the Chinese have traveled to rejoin the rest of the world. To help place the images in context, also included are a map of China, drafted and prepared by China National Institute of Geography, and a chronology listing all the major political events in China since 1949.

The photographers:

Cai Shangxiong, Chen Jie, Chen Ling, Chen Man, Du Xiuxian, Feng Jianguo, Gu Shoukan, Guo Kai, Han Lei, He Yanguang, Hong Ke, Hou Bo, Hu Yang, Huang Yimin, Ji Lianbo, Jiang Jian, Jiang Shaowu, Jin Alfred Cheng, Lei Yu, Li Lang, Li Nan, Li Zhensheng, Liu Heung Shing, Liu Zheng, Lu Guang, Lu Yuanmin, Luo Xiaoyun, Lu Beifeng, Lü Nan, Lü Xiangyou, Meng Zhaorui, Peng Xiangjie, Qin Wen, Qiu Haiyin, Qiu Yan, Ren Wen, Rong Rong and Inri, Ru Suichu, Shi Xunfeng, Tang Desen, Wang Fuchun, Wang Jie, Wang Jinsong, Wang Shilong, Wang Wenlan, Wei Dezhong, Wei Roxun, Weng Naiqiang, Wu Jialin, Xiao Chuan, Xiao Ye, Xiao Zhuang, Xie Guanfei, Xie Hailong, Xing Danwen, Xu Jingxin, Xu Xiaobing, Yang Shaoming, Yang Shizhong, Yang Yankan, Ying Fukan, Yong He, Yu Deshui, Yu Haibo, Zeng Nian, Zhang Dali, Zhang Peng, Zhang Yaxin, Zhao Cunying, Zheng Pingping, Zhou Cao, Zhou Jiandong, Zhou Yue, Zhu Yan and Zhuang Hui.

About the editor:

Liu Heung Shing’s journalistic involvement with China runs parallel with the development of the People’s Republic. Following the 1979 China-U.S. diplomatic normalization, Liu was Time Magazine’s first photojournalist based in Beijing. His first story was on the death of Mao Zedong. He has worked as a foreign correspondent for the The Associated Press in Beijing (1979-1983), Los Angeles (1983-85), New Delhi (19851-89), Seoul (1989-1990) and Moscow (1990-1993). Liu is the author of China After Mao (Penguin 1982), and USSR: Collapse of an Empire (Associated Press 1992). In 1992 he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography on the coverage of the Soviet Union, and in 2005 French Photo magazine named Liu Heung Shing one of the 100 most influential figures in contemporary photography.

About the contributing authors:

James Kynge is an award-winning former journalist in Asia for 20 years. His book, China Shakes the World, has been translated into 19 languages and selected as Goldman Sachs/Financial Times' Business Book of the Year in 2006.

Karen Smith is an art historian specialising in Chinese contemporary art. She has written widely on the subject and is the author of Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China (Scalo, 2006 / Timezone 8, 2008). She also curates exhibitions, including The Real Thing, Tate Liverpool, 2007, and Chinese Photography and Video, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, amongst others. She is also on the advisory board of Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing. She lives in Beijing since 1992