An album of selected images depicts a vision of China in the 1980s, very different from today. China was more ideological, and poor but apparently also more naive and genuine.
In the 80’s China was experiencing a period of transition: the tragedies of the Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four who plagued the country, the death of Mao, the economic and social reforms of Deng Xiaoping.
At the same time, in this decade, Beijing began slowly to open the country.
The directors of the fifth generation like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige emerged, but at that time they depicted the recent past rather than the present, which instead will be told later by the Sixth generation directors as Jia Zhangke in Zhantai (Platform).
Illegal pop music cassette from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan started to pop up around the country influencing the young generations.
Images of China in the 1980s
At that time, black and white tv sets were rare in China.
Chinese seamstresses, like many other workers encouraged by Deng Xiaoping, worked the street.
The ice vendor.
Chinese soldiers writing love letters to their girlfriends or family.
At the time, people didn’t eat meat every day. Meat was reserved for special occasions.
At that time, each family was asked to send people for collective works.
The four modernizations of China (agricultural modernization, national defense, science and technology).
Going home …
Old men chatting
Pens in the pocket were taken into great account during the eighties.
The Great Wall of China.
One of the first Chinese tourist groups.
Unlike today, clothes were shared and reused by all the sons.
A Chinese policeman.
Instead of buses and taxis, people often used trucks, loaded to bursting, before departure.
A seller of traditional Chinese medicine
Chinese barber. At the time, and even now in some remote places, barbers worked on the streets.
Chinese kids reading books in front of a shop.
Sweaters were pretty popular at the time.
The revival of qigong: in this period thousand of qigong schools and academies begin to proliferate. In the picture, some Chinese old people performing unlikely exercises of qigong in a park.
Matteo Damiani is an Italian sinologist, photographer, author and motion designer. Matteo lived and worked for ten years in China. Founder of CinaOggi.it and China-underground.com.
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