中国：1976-1983

This collection of photographs contains more than two hundred images taken by Liu Heung Shing in Beijing from 1976 to 1983. The photographs represent a visual record of daily life for ordinary Chinese people in the Post-Mao period, as China took its first tentative steps out from under the shadow of Mao Zedong, leaving behind an intensive period of fanaticism to embracing instead the new life-style made possible by modernization, industrialization, and political reform. Lius photographs offer plenty of humorous and touching scenes from daily life, capturing the emergence of new socio-cultural shootsof fashion, art, and self-awarenessin what remained a largely conservation climate. Portraits of politicians, intellectuals, and movie stars, together with those of ordinary people sit side by side. Taken together, the images from this brief eight-year period present amazing evidence of the will to recover from the Culture Revolution. It was a moment when China stood at a crossroads in its history. Thirty years have passed since the images in this collection were taken; China has been irreversibly altered by economic and social reform. Lius images reveal just how modern a country China has become in such a short span of time. The collection was first published by Penguin (1983), and republished by Asia 2000 (1987). An Italian version was published in the same year by Jaca Book, Milan, and a fourth edition was revised by Liu and M. Photo Ltd. in 1997. This is the first Chinese edition.