China Obscura (Hardcover)

~ (Author, Photographer), Yang Lian (foreword) (Afterword), Peter Hessler (afterword) (Foreword) "My mother never saw her ancestral home of Soon Wall Village on Guangdong's Pearl River Delta..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Arriving in mainland China by chance just a day after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, young Chinese-American photographer Mark Leong was compelled to stay and explore with his camera's lens the fascinating contradictions of a rapidly changing but still intensely traditional Chinese society. Living in Beijing and traveling across China for the past fifteen years, he has captured images that astonish with their power and with his unprecedented access to both official and underground Chinese culture. This is a China rarely seen, where schoolchildren learn the tenets of Mao and an addict sifts heroin on a bill bearing the Chairman's benevolent likeness; where nervous stockbrokers carry handguns and teenage rollerbladers hope for fame and financial sponsorship. In more than 150 photographs, with a foreword by noted Chinese poet Yang Lian and an afterword by author Peter Hessler, China Obscura is an intimate and exquisitely detailed portrait of a society accelerating toward an uncertain future, precariously straddled between old and new.

About the Author

Mark Leong's photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Fortune, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. He lives in Beijing. This is his first book. Yang Lian has been exiled from China since the political turmoil in 1989. Active on the international literary scene, his poetry has been translated into more than 20 languages. He now lives in London. Peter Hessler is the author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, which was awarded the prestigious Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction. He lives in Beijing.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (August 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811844617
• ISBN-13: 978-0811844611
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,248,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars China from the ground up, November 11, 2004

By	Ian Johnson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First, full disclosure: I have known Mark Leong for 10 years and worked with him as a colleague in China. So this may account for my bias, but I believe that his photos of modern-day China are among the best taken during the post-Tiananmen era. During my decade as a correspondent in China, I always wanted to work with Mark because I thought his gritty, in-your-face pictures captured a side of China that often was overlooked. Instead of showing us the by-now stock shots of high-rises and neon lights, he took viewers to the street level, his 28mm lens always getting reeeeaallly close up into people's faces. I loved it and this book brings back in superb detail the China that I knew in the late 20th and early 21st century. I strongly recommend it for anyone interested in China--it's a beautiful, affordable addition to anyone's library.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent pictography on China, December 12, 2004

By	V. Chin Cheshire (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Leong's beautiful, yet haunting photographs show us a side of China not covered by the media's focus on China's economic growth story. The compositions are arresting and the content intriguing.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great document of post-Tianamen China, February 17, 2008

By	Justin Guariglia (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mark's work embodies the raw feeling and sense I've always felt in China. His work is journalistic in it's explorations and perspective, and serves as a great document and window for everyone to see a slice of post-Tianamen (1989 - 2003) China. An easy add to anyone's library of books on China.