The Chinese Century : A Photographic History

THE CHINESE CENTURY is a magnificent and moving photographic chronicle of the past tumultuous century of china’s history. It brings together nearly 300 stunning photographs, most of them never before published outside China, and an authoritative and accessible text by Jonathan Spence and Annping Chin. Here are the last rulers of the waning empire and the revolutionaries who were to overthrow them; the warlords and capitalists who exploited the new order; the chaos of civil war and the brutality of the Japanese invasion and occupation; the Long March and the great famine; the triumph of the Red Army and the terrible cruelty and suffering of the Cultural Revolution; the depredations and downfalls of the Gang of Four; and the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. Alongside these often shocking scenes are glorious landscapes and teeming cities, intimate portraits of Chinese men and women, townspeople and peasants, artists, writers, film stars and the country’s leaders, as they have rarely been seen in the West. THE CHINESE CENTURY’s spectacular array of photographs bring to life, as never before, the hidden face of China.