China's Thirty Years

China's transformation over the past three decades has touched every corner of Chinese society and had an enormous global economic impact. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in his Foreword to this book, calls China's accomplishments "unprecedented in human history". Thirty years on is the perfect occasion to look back along the road to reform to recall the struggles and the accomplishments of the era. Picturing Reform: China's 30 Years, is a unique photographic essay, an eye-witness account of the Chinese experience of reform and opening to the outside world. This book features 300 striking photographs by Chinese photographers, each capturing a moment about the era. Picturing Reform covers the decades from 1978 to 2008 in three sections, and the photographs are accompanied by descriptions, as well as introductions (in Chinese with English adaptations) to the larger social, political and economic events surrounding them. The pictures take the viewer on a journey - from daily life in the Chinese countryside, to the meeting rooms of the inner circle of leadership at Zhongnanhai; from the wrenching aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, through the budding experiments with market reform, and rapid development, to the flourishing, urbanizing, globalizing China of 2008. The collection, assembled by the China Photographers Association (and sponsored by Boyuan Foundation), includes photographs never before seen outside of China, revealing accomplished photojournalism and remarkable talent. The advantage of viewing history through the camera's eye, the photographers believe, is the way that film images can convey "truth, symbolism and portent". The images - by turns beautiful, surreal, poignant and powerful - are a visual tribute to the strength, resilience, and innovative capacity of the Chinese people, and a collective portrait of the role of humanity in historical change.