The world will welcome this. Chinese American photographer Liu Xiangcheng: Reflecting China's diversity and even complexity in China | World | Liu Xiangcheng

Release time:Apr 14, 2024 10:26 AM

"I am fortunate enough to become a 'translator' of culture and art, introducing the world I know through photos and explaining what China really is to people outside of China." Liu Xiangcheng said, "This job is undoubtedly difficult. Someone told me, 'Things are better done than not.' With this encouragement, I try to do a little bit."

At the age of 72, Liu Xiangcheng has won awards such as the Pulitzer Live News Photography Award, the Overseas Journalists Club Award, and Paris Photography, one of the 99 most influential photographers in contemporary photography. He founded the Shanghai Photography Art Center in 2015. His camera witnessed the group portrait of students studying in the brightly lit Tiananmen Square after the resumption of the Chinese college entrance examination, and also recorded the scene of 106 year old "Father of Chinese Pinyin" Zhou Youguang writing "China" in mid air.

The documentary photography collection "Liu Xiangcheng's Lens, Era, and People" launched by Shanghai Culture Publishing House selected 190 works from the eponymous exhibition currently being held at the Pudong Art Museum. This photography collection in China has the largest number of Liu Xiangcheng's photography works and the widest range of themes, and sold out the first print in just a few days.

At the new book sharing event held at the flagship store of Duoyun Academy, Liu Xiangcheng took the stage and raised his phones one by one in the reader's seat, annotating the era of "everyone can take photos". In such an era, what is a photographer?

"I accompanied my spouse to dinner and walked from Huashan Road to Hunan Road. I saw two ladies dancing square dancing. Their figures were so graceful, and I quickly took out my phone, thinking that the shutter speed was too slow." Liu Xiangcheng told me about what happened the day before. "Until today, my interest in China has not diminished. People often ask me, 'What do you want to take pictures of?' I always feel a bit regretful. There are so many things to take pictures of, why ask others? I hope to take pictures of things that don't seem like 'events'."

"Photographers need to maintain curiosity. The photographer and the object being photographed need to establish a basic trust, and the photos taken will convey the emotions of the subject, so that the photo can 'speak' on its own." Liu Xiangcheng said that in today's highly globalized ecology, China's diversity and even complexity should be reflected, "I think the world will welcome this."

Tell me about the disaster relief scene I saw, Zhuozhou Returning Water Flow | Rescue | Disaster Relief
Tell me about the disaster relief scene I saw, Zhuozhou Returning Water Flow | Rescue | Disaster Relief

Rainstorm hit Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The once-in-a-century natural disaster brings an unprecedented rescue challenge. For the north, floods are a relatively unfamiliar scene. In the face of disasters, professional self rescue awareness, rescue ability, and disaster relief order are particularly crucial. On the early morning of August 5th, we contacted the Zique rescue team who had just evacuated from the flood scene in Zhuozhou and was still on their way back. This civilian rescue force from Shanghai participated in many core tasks during the flood. Recalling the cities and villages soaked in water waiting for rescue, they had a lot of experience and observation from the disaster relief site. The following is the story of Hong Yunyin, a member of the Zique Rescue Team. Narrator: Hong Yunyin, 37 years old, one of the founders of the Zique Rescue Team. Terrain, water flow, and debris test rescue professional skills. We have been closely related since late July

What tricks can Shanghai play?, The garbage at the end is only for visiting a "garbage factory", they travel thousands of miles to utilize the garbage at the end
What tricks can Shanghai play?, The garbage at the end is only for visiting a "garbage factory", they travel thousands of miles to utilize the garbage at the end

Some people say that the real driving force of garbage classification is at the end. As long as the efficiency of garbage resource utilization is high enough, the change of the beginning will happen naturally. However, "benefits" are difficult to calculate. As a public product, the end disposal of garbage is not only quite complicated, but also relatively limited in return. So, under the goal of "no waste city", how should waste end disposal enterprises balance public welfare and development? What are their new explorations in conversion efficiency? The reporter visited Songjiang Tianma Waste-free Low-carbon Environmental Protection Industrial Park and Shanghai Laogang Ecological Environmental Protection Base, trying to reveal the effectiveness and difficulties of waste end disposal, and found the potential and motivation of "circular economy" normalization. Face the shock of garbage "everyone who comes here will feel the shock." In Songjiang Tianma, there is no waste, low carbon and environmentally friendly production.

What kind of morning tea lifestyle do you prefer? There are more and more good places for Mo Du to drink morning tea! Cantonese and Soviet style Shanghai | Morning Tea | Soviet style
What kind of morning tea lifestyle do you prefer? There are more and more good places for Mo Du to drink morning tea! Cantonese and Soviet style Shanghai | Morning Tea | Soviet style

In my impression, the traditional breakfast of Shanghai people is inseparable from the "Four Great Kings". With the development of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta, in the past one or two years, more and more Yangzhou and Taizhou morning tea shops have opened in Shanghai. Many local "time-honored brands" in Shanghai have reopened or adhered to the morning tea period of 7 or 8 o'clock, and the existing brand Cantonese restaurants have provided the population in Shanghai with a richer morning tea experience. As a traditional social and dietary custom in China, morning tea is related to the dietary habits of a place and also reflects the historical development and cultural identity of a city. The reporter recently visited morning tea shops with different flavors in Shanghai to observe and experience the morning tea lifestyle in Shanghai. Cantonese people tend to refer to eating morning tea as "sighing tea", where "sighing" means enjoying it. What is the flavor of "sighing" when drinking morning tea in Shanghai? Having a bite to eat but lacking leisure time

Why emphasize "the original" and learn the foundation of the Party's innovative theory | China | Theory
Why emphasize "the original" and learn the foundation of the Party's innovative theory | China | Theory

Yuan, the foundation of water; Ben, under the wood.To study the Party's innovative theory in its original form, we should take the Party's report, Party Constitution, and Party's innovative theoretical works as important learning texts.Learning the Party's innovative theory in its original form should be based on the original and in accordance with the Central Committee of the Party

You cannot wear these two colors of swimsuits while swimming! What are the colors of outdoor sports clothing that require fabric | UV | Outdoor sports
You cannot wear these two colors of swimsuits while swimming! What are the colors of outdoor sports clothing that require fabric | UV | Outdoor sports

Summer has arrived, and swimming is a great sport. The choice of swimsuit not only requires comfort, but also safety. In many sports scenes, clothing color can serve as a protective and warning function. How to choose colors for sportswear such as swimsuits? A professional organization conducted an experiment to study the impact of swimsuit color on children's safety. The experiment observed the visibility of different colored swimsuits on calm and wavy water surfaces in indoor swimming pools and outdoor lakes, and concluded that the fluorescent color scheme with strong contrast is the best swimsuit color in both indoor swimming pools and lake water. Fluorescent colors such as fluorescent orange, fluorescent green, fluorescent powder, and fluorescent red are more vibrant. Fluorescent swimsuits can improve children's visibility in water and help parents or safety personnel take care of children in water. White, light blue, and black are not recommended