The Forgotten Faces of Contemporary China

The rise of China in the past 3 decades has been nothing short of spectacular, its economy expanding at an exponential rate, propelling forward the country as one of the top financial powerhouse in the world. With strong financial foundation, more than 160 million of China’s youth migrates internally to seek better lives. On top of that, more than 160 million Chinese families have only one child, a product of the nation’s One Child Policy. And more than 160 million of the nation’s population are 60 years or older. In short, the exponential expansion in the wealth of the nation alters China’s demography. Growing old are two words most of us dread, due to reasons of diminishing beauty and diminishing abilities either physically or mentally. The fear of aging runs across all living matters, in honesty, who wants to grow old and withered? Coupled by the bombardment of today’s perception of beauty, this fear escalates further within us, as can be seen in the rise of artificially enhancing one’s outlook through surgical or other means, leaving behind an aging society that we tend to overlook. The foray into rural China brings us into a world of a greying society. Beneath the smiles, expressions and happiness, underlies an emotional detachment of a person being left behind by the effect of economic expansion. The images are a reflection of the nation’s history, an important but forgotten part of present day China, when one tends to look at youth and beauty alone. These people are but the forgotten beautiful faces of modern contemporary China.