China in a Mirror

Using the mirror as their motif, seasoned photographers Roland and Sabrina Michaud pair traditional Chinese artworks, some of which date back eight centuries, with their own photographs of China taken over a period of nearly twenty years. The pairings evoke an enduring civilization rooted in faith and tradition and offer a striking comparison between the land, faces, customs, and lifestyles of China and the Chinese, past and present. Terraced landscapes and mist-shrouded mountaintops, flora and fauna, arts and technology, rural farmers and children: the artwork and photographs bear witness to the rich history and heritage of this vast country, which have remained largely unchanged over the centuries.Extracts from ancient Chinese literature and philosophy, as well as beautiful flourishes of Chinese calligraphy, underscore the timelessness of the images. Far from cliché, this keepsake volume unveils part of the mystery surrounding this ancestral civilization and, at a time of social change and unprecedented economic expansion, evokes the extraordinary continuity of China’s heritage.