China Chronicle is a photo album compiled and published to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China Daily (June 1, 1981 - June 1, 2001). As an English-language newspaper affiliated to the Information Office of the State Council, the China Daily has kept pace with China's reform and opening up over the past twenty years or more. Designers and editors of China Chronicle, having pinpointed the special relationship between the establishment of the newspaper and China's reform and opening, have selected the cream of news photos taken over the past twenty years to compile this album. In describing the development of the newspaper, it also chronicles China's reform.
As an English-language newspaper, the China Daily drew lessons from European and American newspapers regarding editing concepts and techniques, especially picture editing. Differing as it did from newspapers and magazines in the stereotyped style of that time, it aroused attention at the initial stages of reform and opening up, leaving an indelible image in the mind's eye of contemporary photographers. Xu Jingxing, one of the editors of China Chronicle, talked about his first impressions of the newspaper in the early 1980s. "A photo released by the Xinhua News Agency seemed more eye-catching in the China Daily, and a news item published in China Daily, accompanied by the pictures taken by China Daily staff photographers, was more compelling than any of those appearing in other newspapers.
The wide ranging influence of the China Daily at that time is explained by photographer Wu Zhiyi and his reasons for wanting to work for this newspaper. "From the 1980s to date, the China Daily has won top journalistic photography awards, and its news pictures are very much admired and respected within photographic circles. As a photo journalist, I therefore wanted very much to work for this newspaper." At that time, Wu Zhiyi had already won prizes in various national photography contests, and had become an authority within photographic circles.
The innovative approach which distinguished the China Daily from other newspapers and magazines attracted a number of talented photo-journalists, who used their skills to record the vivid images of 20 years of reform in China.
China Chronicle involves a wide range of subjects, including important international political events such as Hong Kong’s return, and the Sino-US Agreement on China's Entry to the WTO by Wu Zhiyi, life in Chinese society such as The Mobile Great Wall by Wang Wenlan, Making Space for Three Gorges Reservoir by Li Taihang, and Foreigners in Shanghai by Gao Erqiang. There are also examples of the portraiture photography at which Jiang Dong excels, and various images depicted by Lu Zhongqiu, all of which summarize the reality and changes in China since its opening.
The influence of reform and opening up on the Chinese concept of news is apparent from the perspectives and subject matter of pictures published over this period, prior to which China's news was dominated by politics, and lacked articles of human interest. Differing little in its language and content from that used in official documents, it was difficult for the public to take more than a dutiful interest in the kind of common reportage prior to the innovations employed by the China Daily, which made format and content changes that added vitality to its journalism. Wang Wenlan, head of the China Daily Pictures Department, and also one of the national top ten photojournalists, recalls his involvement in this aspect. "Feng Xiliang (first editor-in-chief of the China Daily) suggested innovations in the China Daily style of pictures, insisting that the pictures published should be the latest, and not, as was common at that time, familiar to the public by the time they were released. Readers had become accustomed to this delayed style of reportage, but things then changed for the better. The former approach, where dull, stereotyped news dominated by statistics and far removed from everyday life, was supplanted by one where we concentrated more on people, particularly through conveying images of the Chinese public, in contrast to the conventional style of journalism which all but precluded human pictures. The stress then was on scenery and landscapes, and newspaper pictures were mainly for the purpose of celebrating good harvests and the industrial might of Chinese steel smelting. As an English-language newspaper, it is our duty to let readers from other countries gain a better understanding of Chinese people, so the China Daily pictures, whether they are of leaders or ordinary people, should be vivid. Our usual practice at that time was to magnify photos in order to make them more attractive. China Daily pictures represented the essence of journalist photography, and although nowadays such methods are standard practice, at the initial stage of the China Daily they were considered the height of innovation and creativity."
Every picture included in China Chronicle reflects details of the changes that have occurred in China, as well as the influence of its style on Chinese journalistic concepts. In its history of more than twenty years, this is where the true value of its contribution to the media lies.
(China Today November 10, 2001 )
