CHINAHOY

HOME

2014-March-3

A Captivating Stroll through an Epic Era

By DENG YUSHAN

Stories of China’s Reform – A Photographer’s Personal Experiences

Author: Liu Weibing

273 pages, paperback

Price: RMB 78

Published by Foreign Languages Press in Beijing, November 2013

A good book pulls you in. Whether fiction or non-fiction, it can conjure up another world and draw you into it. You smile and you grieve; you marvel and you sigh. Only when you finish the last line on the last page is the spell broken – yet some of the scenes stick with you.

Liu Weibing’s Stories of China’s Reform – A Photographer’s Personal Experiences, recently published by Foreign Languages Press, stands out as one such compelling book. Down-to-earth narratives like pieces of a splendid mosaic add up to an all-embracing, true-to-life account of the earth-shaking changes that have reshaped China and the world at large during the past 30-odd years.

Poring through the book is like strolling down a picture gallery. As a seasoned photographer with Xinhua News Agency, Liu illustrates his stories with abundant riveting photos – from cabbages, one of the few winter vegetables available in northern China until the late 80s, to fast food restaurants, from billboards to beauty contests, and from the SARS outbreak to the Wenchuan earthquake. Embodying his outstanding professional acumen, these pictures freeze-frame the most representative moments in China’s recent history, reinforcing the truth contained in the time-honored aphorism that a picture is worth a thousand words.

No less striking is the language Liu employs to carry his stories. Studded with felicitous details and vivid descriptions, his narration not only describes but also enhances. “From then on, I would rush to the chicken coop the moment I heard the clucking of a hen. My delight would be beyond description once I had an egg in hand, and I would lose no time to crack it open and suck out the white and yolk, whole and raw.” What an animated portrayal of a naughty, greedy boy!

1   2