Focus on change

An award-winning photographer has released a book that documents the extraordinary changes that have taken place in the country over the past 30 years. Sun Ye takes you through the pages.

The saying "every dog has its day" has come true, literally.

"They (dogs) were kicked around and called brutal beasts 30 years ago. Now, they ride in BMWs and are beloved pets," says Liu Weibing, a Xinhua News Agency photographer.

The treatment of dogs is just one of the social changes Liu has examined in his newly released documentary book, Stories of China's Reforms - A Photographer's Personal Experiences published by Foreign Languages Press.

It started out as a simple retrospective project for the award-winning photographer. But while putting pictures and captions together, Liu noticed a major and inescapable theme.

"It was so clear. The theme was change," the 46-year-old member of the Chinese Writers' Association says.

Liu used 230 photos to tell a vivid story of the reform and opening-up policy that started in 1979, which brought the country astronomical wealth as well as unexpected problems.

The Tonghuihe area was once a playground for children. It became polluted and putrid in the early 1990s, before undergoing rejuvenation. It is now "fit for wedding ceremonies".

One photographer waited four hours to see four cars drive down the newly built Jianguomen bypass in 1979. Now, there are constant traffic jams.

Beijing locals used to survive on limited ration coupons and winter cabbages stocked in basements. Now, people are presented with overflowing goods in department stores.

Liu tells of these changes through his photographs and stories. He also relates the changes in his own life, mostly for the better. "If the reform hadn't been introduced, I might have worked the land all my life," he says.

Liu grew up in a poverty-stricken part of suburban Beijing. As an adult he pursued a career in photojournalism, traveling to more than 60 countries.

"Of all the countries I've been to, I like China best and have witnessed most changes here," he says.

Liu has also written about his pocket money of 2 cents he received in the 1970s. It brought him tremendous happiness, but today younger people have more money but seem no more happy.

He confesses to have once bought a "magic" mineral bottle - it claimed to turn purified water into mineral water. The product was a desired item in the 1990s. "I bought it to show filial piety, not really understanding the technology. But in retrospect, it was just a hoax."

These honest details won him the most praise.

"We are used to focusing on the more grandiose topics, but history is about the small, real-life details," says Bao Kun, an art critic and curator. "Liu's book has done just that. He recorded the changes of everyday life."

"You don't just see a Xinhua photographer here," the book's English translator (and professor with Beijing Foreign Studies University) Li Zhurun says. "It's more of a personal history of a common Chinese. That is the trustworthy stuff of history."

The book's English version was rewritten and fully annotated so that foreigners can better understand the remarkable changes that have taken place over the past 30 years.

"Yes, there are unhappy moments from the last 30 years, but life has definitely become better," Liu says. "And we should always be hopeful."

Contact the writer at sunye@chinadaily.com.cn.