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The retrospective book of 50 years of travels of the photographer across the Middle Kingdom.

For more than fifty years, Chines recounts the numerous stays of photographer Marc Riboud in the Middle Kingdom. From his first journey in 1957, he never went short of warnings: ”You will only see what the Chinese want to show you, […] a decoration prepared in advance …” It is true that a European does not travel in China as he would do elsewhere, especially at that time. But due to polite insistence, patience and diplomacy, the photographer managed to enter homes, schools, museums, to wander day and night in Beijing or Shanghai, to attend the show offered by villages or factories… The incredible images offered here tell about the daily life of the Chinese before the ”Great Leap Forward” set up by Mao Zedong in 1958. Other stays followed during several decades up to 2010 with, of course, countless photographs witnessing today to the promises of History. Through more than 350 black and white and color images, Marc Riboud creates a portrait of these multiple China (s) which is exciting because it’s living. Pictures full of beauty, strength and truth.