China Photos and Reflections: A Grassroots Look at Chinese Culture and the Chinese People

This photo narrative is a compilation of this author's experiences in China since 2001. During the past fourteen years I have had the opportunity to travel to China eight times, during which time I have lived there a total of fourteen months. This “grassroots” perspective has provided me with a unique opportunity to experience China and the marvelous transformation the country and its people.

Few Americans have been able to know and see the China I am writing about; the country continues, I think, to remain very much of a mystery to many people in America. My research indicates that little full-length, intensely in-depth work has been done involving today’s China. Most articles and non-fiction works are written from a travelogue or from an economic or political perspective and don’t really reveal the intensity that can be found in the people…in their daily lives and social environs. Therefore, the reflections and pictures in my photo narrative are an attempt to give westerners contemporary insight into and knowledge about that fascinating country… its people, its culture and traditions, its society, its joys and sorrows.

The narrative reflections in my work are structured around fifteen chapters, each of which is a close discussion and analysis of an aspect of Chinese life that I have found extremely fascinating and which I feel will be of intense interest to Western readers. The reflections are supported and elaborated upon by a selection from over 1500 photos and videos I took during my time in China. The chapters in the narrative are “snapshots” of the Chinese people from a western perspective and understanding. More importantly, though, the work will give the reader an intriguing glimpse into the country that will continue to have a tremendous impact on world affairs in the coming century.