China Emerging_ 1978-2008 - Xiao-bo , Wu [1]
A Japanese photographer I admire, Ogawa Shinsuke, once said that the most explosive events of history are always propelled by individuals from
VIII Preface
behind the scenes. This captures the reality underlying China’s recent thirty years. The changes in China have been the work of individual people, and have been based on “the freedom-inspired creativity of the Chinese people” as Premier Wen Jiabao put it.
Oswald Spengler also noted in his The Decline of the West that individuals perform the duties arranged by the inevitable forces of history. Willing participants lead the way while those who are unwilling simply drag along.
The past thirty years in China have this inherent quality of inevitability. Along the path there might have been some chance interruptions, but the underlying necessity persisted, like an inextinguishable spirit.
Today, we call that spirit a “market economy.”
Wu Xiao-bo 2008, Hangzhou
AC K N OW L E D G M E N T S
T
he historical and contemporary photographs that document this book derived from a competition among China’s photographers to mark the thirtieth anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. We would like to thank the lens masters who participated in recording history.
These include, in an alphabetical order by surname, An Ge, Bao Kun, Chen Shao-hua, Chen Xiao-bo, Deng Wei, Geng Zhi-gang, Fu Xiao-ming, Gu Zheng, He Yan-guang, Hu Wu-gong, Hu Ying, Huang Wen, Huang Xin, Huo Wei, Le Yi, Li Ge, Li Mei, Li Shu-feng, Li Yan-hong, Liu Jie, Liu Shuyong, Lü Xiang, Meng Ren-quan, Qiu Hui-ning, Qiu Xiang-lin, Ruan Xiao, Sheng Xi-gui, Si Su-shi, Su Zhi-gang, Sun Jing-tao, Tan Cheng-fa, Wang Jing-chun, Wang Qian, Wang Wen-lan, Wang Yao, Wu Hong-ze, Xia Donghai, Xie Qing-song, Xu Hua-ding, Yang De-jun, Yang Zhi-tao, Ye Chao, Ye Zhi-wen, Yong He, Yu Wen-guo, Yuan Yun, Zeng Huang, Zhang Guangyuan, Zhang Tao, Zhang Xiang-dong, Zhang Xiao-nian, Zhang Xin-min, and Zhuang Run-gui.
Renmin University of China
Sohu.com
Wu Xiao-bo
June 2008
PART 1
The Beginning
1978 –1983
Deng Opens the Door to the World
T
he winter of 1978 was particularly cold. A thin shaft of light penetrated the grayness of Beijing as a Xinhua News correspondent, using the most oblique innuendo, noted that the political situation was beginning to change. “A hint of sunlight is finally breaking through the
coldness, bringing a small measure of warmth to people’s lives. In this huge city, with its crowded apartments and its narrow checkerboard streets, the masses are beginning to feel a sense of relief.”
The year 1978 marked the start of China’s momentous change, when the country began to respond to the call of a different destiny. Ten years of the throes of the Cultural Revolution and more than twenty years of a “planned economy” had placed the country on the verge of collapse. There was just one bank in the whole of China. There were no insurance companies and no financial institutions. The country’s total reserves were equal to
Photograph of the Beijing Post and Telecommunications Institute class “7811.”
RMB 108.99 billion, including those of the state-owned enterprises and the central treasury. All this was deposited in one bank, comprising 83.8% of the country’s money. Fixed assets in any state-owned enterprise were paid for with “allocations” from the bank, which was also the source of loans for working capital.
In the twenty years between 1958 and 1978, the per capita annual income of urban residents increased by less than RMB 4 while that of farmers increased by less than RMB 2.6. In order to avoid exposing the heavy industry to bombing in the event of war, China’s industries were located, not in the economically advantageous coastal area, but far in the interior, the