A Day in the Life of China
Ninety photographers (60 Western, 30 Chinese) fanned out across China on a single day--April 15, 1989--to take the pictures that make up this rare, candid glimpse of the world's most populous nation. The photos show us villages and farms and take us into homes, schools and factories. From a kaleidoscope of images--rice-planting brigades, a defendant in the dock on trial for murder, yaks on Main Street in one city--we get a feel for the contradictions and pressures of a modernizing society. Many of the photos are exceptionally beautiful; taken together, they reveal the diversity of this vast country, moving from the tent-like yurts of Mongolian nomads to a Tantric Buddhist monastery in occupied Tibet. The photo-essay concludes with a glimpse of protest posters that went up at Beijing University as students began to occupy Tiananmen Square, a tragically ironic conclusion in light of events that followed. First serial to Time; author tour.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.