Xu Yong

Xu Yong (b. 1954, Shanghai) was one of the first photographers to focus on everyday life in modern China, free from political romanticisation or ideological whitewashing. In Hutong 101 Photos, he traces the history of the traditional residential district of Beijing, with its centuries-old buildings complete with rear courtyards and myriad narrow alleyways, the “Hutongs.” Many of these neighbourhoods have since fallen victim to radical redevelopment and have been demolished. Xu Yong’s black-and-white images dating from 1989 bear witness to the rise and fall, the heyday and the decline, of the Hutongs — against the backdrop of the rapid societal change in China that followed the end of the Qing Dynasty. In this milestone of Chinese photography, which is now finally being published as a new edition in book form, Xu Yong has created an elegiac tribute to the old alleyways of Beijing, revealing both their poetic beauty and the sadness surrounding their demise.

Text in English and Chinese.