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Stories of China's Reform
Books> Extract> Stories of China's Reform
UPDATED: December 12, 2013
Postscript
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This new book of mine is a true account of the epic changes that have taken place in China over the most recent three decades.

One evening in early 2013, Mr. Xu Bu, director-general of the Beijing-based Foreign Languages Press, called me from Hong Kong. He proposed that I produce a new book to mark the 35th year of China's reform on the basis of a book of mine published a few years ago, which is entitled A Retrospect of the Most Recent Two Decades – A Xinhua Photographer's Notes (Retrospect for short). The new book based on it, Xu said, would be published in two languages, Chinese and English.

Mr. Xu's proposal rekindled a long-cherished hope of mine. Years ago, Mr. He Ping, editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, had proposed that I have an English translation of Retrospect published. But I was too busy with work, for a time unable to make a decision. Having published a few books, I knew it wouldn't be easy to produce a new one. 

Picturing the rapidly changing world in my mind, however, words of Liang Heng, a contemporary Chinese essayist, resounded in my ears: "If you are unable to be a hero of history, then try to build up a record of history." For journalists, to build up a record of history is an honor. With a sense of mission, I eventually became resolved to work on a new book. 

Changes in three years can be great, let alone those that have taken place in some 30 years. What China would have become without the reform? What would we ourselves have become? Indeed I have so much to say about China's reform and opening to the world, having grown up in this extraordinary period of history. I have always been keen to history, filled with awe and gratitude for it. I don't think I am in a position to play a big role in the country and society. Meanwhile, I always think as a journalist, I should be painstaking with my work and contribute to history with my writings and photos. 

Peach flowers were blossoming toward the end of March 2013, the prime time of spring in Beijing which is usually short. Pollen hypersensitive, I was unable to appreciate the beauty of those flowers – in fact I had no time for that even if I was. I shut myself up in my study, working day in and day out on this new project. I felt I was traveling through a "time tunnel," trying to dig out history from archives, from my diary that runs to nearly half a million words, and from the tens of thousands of old photos, and from notes I had taken in thousands of beats, and also from my blog articles. The elaborate, exhausting research culminated in this new book entitled Stories of China's Reform – a Photographer's Personal Experiences (Stories for short). Though inadequate in English, I did my best to help in checking the translation together with many friends.

The book is new though based on Retrospect. It contains many events not found in Retrospect, and the period it covers spans more than 30 years from the late 1970s to now. There are comparisons between China and foreign countries. While giving an account of the changes in China in the most recent 30 years, I want to share with the reader my thoughts on them. Most photos in Stories are not found in Retrospect. I have tons of photos in my private collection, from which I have chosen the best for this book. I have always had a camera with me, ready to take photos whenever something I think is newsworthy happens.

Mo Yan, a Chinese Nobel Prize laureate in literature, worked for 43 days to finish his novel Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, which runs to 430,000 characters. The fantastic speed was attributed to his life-long endeavor to accumulate experiences and interpret them. I spent all my spare time in six months working on the new book with more than 100,000 characters, planning its plot and writing it, and selecting and editing old photos and taking new photos when necessary – over 200, all told. So my speed was not too slow.

Stories is an account of my personal experiences in news reporting beats and photo-taking, along with my interpretation of their significance. Following the same trend of thought and in the same style as my books previously published, the new book is based on events in which I was involved and on photos that bring those events back to life.

Yet Stories is far from adequate as an account of China's reform over the past 30 years – a topic so elaborate on an extraordinary part of the Chinese history over so great a time span with ups and downs that cannot be more kaleidoscopic. It is impossible for a book to cover everything that has happened in China over those decades, and I will continue working so that this regret of mine can be alleviated in the future. There could be errors in the book, which I hope readers won't hesitate to point them out. 

I would like to thank Mr. Li Zhaoxing and Mr. He Ping for contributing the prefaces to Stories. I owed the book to Mr. Xu Bu, director-general of Foreign Languages Press, and Mr. Hu Kaimin, deputy editor-in-chief of the FLP, who have made publication of this book possible. My thanks go to Mrs. Yang Lu, executive editor of the book, and copy editor Mr. Xiao Shiling. I would like to thank Mr. Li Zhurun, a senior editor of Xinhua News Agency, for translating this book into English. Thirty friends from various walks of life add weight to the book by contributing their own stories in the reform era. I would like to thank all of them for their support. To name some of them: Shen Jianguo, Liang Xiaosheng, Wu Yanze, Xu Guoxing, Wang Wenlan, Hu Zijing, Zhang Weitai, Pei Chunliang, Li Chenggang, Ren Jiefeng, Li Xiuping and Lüqiu Luwei.

My thanks go to leaders and colleagues at Xinhua for support and encouragement they have given me over the years. Many friends, Chinese and foreign, offered me help. To name a few of them: Ma Wei, Lü Yuping, Zhu Jun, Liu Baoming, Jia Fenyong, Shen Wen, Wang Ye, Chen Andi, Liu Yaxuan and Liu Xuekui, as well as Jonathan Dotson, J.D., guest professor at the University of International Business and Economics, and other foreign friends. In particularly, I must thank Mr. Ma Wei and Mrs. Lü Yuping, the first readers of the book, who worked painstakingly to ensure that the book is error-free.

I also thank my wife He Xiaocong and my son Liu Liyuan for their understanding and support. Like all other books of mine, this one is dedicated to my mother who sleeps her long sleep in the embrace of the Western Hills of Beijing. "Be honest in conducting yourself; be painstaking in your work" – Bearing in mind this behest of hers, I have always been on guard against slacking off in work and life.

Spring is now gone, followed by summer and then by autumn when I was finishing the book. How time flies! So many changes are taking place in society, and so rapidly, impossible for us to pinpoint all of them in good time. On a second thought, however, I realized this is not necessarily bad. The four seasons of the year are bound to come in succession, each featuring a unique beauty. The new book of mine is to come off the press in autumn, the season when people in their tens of thousands are attracted to Beijing's Western Hills for red maple leaves there. The snow-clad hills in winter are equally beautiful. Please spare some time on the book after a trip from those hills.

Liu Weibing, September 2013;
Xuanwumen, Beijing



 
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