CHINA, Portrait of a Country
by James Kynge (Author), Karen Smith (Author), Liu Heung Shing (Editor)
Context:
The 2000/2010 decade was decisive for the process of opening and consolidation of China as key international partner. Relevant cultural and sports events were held, such as the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, and Shanghai 2010 Expo with impact throughout China and worldwide. Both events brought to the international community the awareness of the increasing role of China in the world not only as economic partner, but also under the cultural standpoint.
Published in 2008, upon such global discovery of China and Chinese contemporary art and photography importance, German publisher Taschen edited a huge trilingual international compilation of Chinese photography produced since 1949, year of foundation of Chinese People’s Republic, not only under the cultural side but, mostly, as a tool of propaganda. The book was an opportunity to bring to the global viewer “the People's Republic seen by Chinese photographers”, as stated by its editor.
It is also important to highlight that, by then, Taschen was actively working for the “mass market” art publishing, being able to release huge editions of pristine quality under incredible low retail prices. It was the case of this book, which made it a world success. Later, Taschen, somehow, reverted its editorial policy (and prices) becoming a sort of “luxury brand”, in particular with regard to photobooks…
The book structure:
Covering almost 60 years of contemporary China (1949/2008), the selected photos highlight not only the political and social dramatic events held in the country within that period, but also China’s achievements and development.
Organized by decade, each one a period of China’s evolution and held major events, the selected photos show us not only how photography aesthetics evolved in these years, but also how it was as a decisive communication tool and of propaganda of the regime (in all phases), notwithstanding its quality.
Photographers dealt with their lived social and political context, and could witness several major events that shaped contemporary China – Founding of the People’s Republic, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Post-Mao era, economic opening and China’s economic and urban development.
The authors and editor identified the following six decades/periods:
#1 - 1949 / 1959 - The birth of Modern China
# 2 – 1960 / 1969 –Great Leap Backward
# 3 – 1970 / 1979 – Suspicion, Subversion and Continued Madness
#4 – 1980 / 1989 – Rock ‘n ‘Roll and Modernization
#5 – 1990 / 1999 – Actions Speaking Louder than Words
#6 – 2000 / today (2008) – China Joins the World
“China, Portrait of a Country” although promoted no longer by Taschen on its website, can still be purchased in international retailers (Amazon and others). The relevancy of this photo book is obvious: the included photos, references to photos and Chinese propaganda magazines, and selected photographers and their quality are highlighted. Further, its relatively low price makes it a highly recommendable purchase to all photo enthusiasts and researchers of China’s recent history.
Product details
· Publisher : TASCHEN; Multilingual edition – (August 1, 2008)
· Languages : English, German & French
· Hardcover : 423 pages
· ISBN-10 : 383650569X
· ISBN-13 : 978-3836505697
· Dimensions: (25.6 x 34 cm)