New Photography in China

Reviewed by Ruchi Shukla.

China is a hot subject of discussion in many fields today. Economists and businesses around the world are watching the growing economic giant with awe and fear as they brace themselves for a Chinese wave that may be sweeping the world.

It is no surprise then that interest in Chinese culture and society has also increased, as people wonder about the force that drives this economic giant.

Changing way of life

Since the mid-1990s, Chinese society has changed considerably. Growing industrialization and urbanization has led to a society more exposed to Western goods and culture.

As China becomes a market for manufacturers from around the world, a variety of goods are being made available to the Chinese people that were not available before. Thus, the Chinese way of life has slowly changed.

The generation that grew up through the 1990s might have experienced the transition from a Communist society to a more Westernized culture the most.

Young generation

This has affected the way that these youngsters look at the world — and their primary tools of expressing themselves have moved from the pen or the paintbrush to a camera lens.

As personal wealth increased, the concept of photography also began take a stronghold in Chinese society. Once only a pleasure for the rich, technological advances have made this instrument available to almost all.

Digital age

As the importance of the digital media grew, photography took hold as an instrument of self-expression for many youth.

3030 Press’ “New Photography in China” compiles some of the work of these new-age expressionists in China. The book displays the work of 30 photographers that capture various images of Chinese life. What comes out is an interesting collection of the life in modern China.

While there are still traditional elements of religion and culture, what is overwhelming are the elements of urbanization present in China today. Giant cities with tons of buildings and people, and big billboards advertising new products, are a part of the landscape of modern China.

Increasing urbanization

Some photo collections capture the daily life of youngsters in urban cities — and some capture the more bizarre side of their lives.

Like most young people in other countries, the young generation in China is also going through an identity crisis of sorts as they try to grapple with the mix of old tradition and modern culture. Some of the collections in the book, then, deal with this confusion faced by the youth of China.

Self-expression

A very interesting aspect of the book is that these photographs capture the ‘personal’ lives of these photographers.

In a society like China, where the family always took precedence over the individual, these ‘personal’ accounts display a break away from the norm and a move towards the more individualistic Western lifestyle.

Thus, this book captures a new China in many ways – urbanization, modernization and Westernization all manifest themselves in the work of these photographers.

About the book's curators

Gu Zheng is a professor of photography at Fudan University in Shanghai and one of China’s leading scholars of contemporary photography. He has written for numerous journals in China and was chief curator of the 2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial.

Ou Ning is an artist, author and champion of contemporary art in China. He was the curator of Get It Louder, in 2005 — an important exhibition of Chinese contemporary art and design — and has written widely on the country’s evolving art scene.