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August 8, 2008 – For Immediate Release

CHINA PHOTO BOOK BUILDS BRIDGE OF HEALING

Tom Carter’s CHINA: Portrait of a People captures diversity of 33 Chinese provinces

Beijing, China – As the 2008 Summer Olympics commence, all eyes are on China. But far from being the celebration envisaged by Chinese leaders, the first six months of 2008 have seen unrest in Tibet, worldwide protests against the Olympic torch and the devastating earthquake in Sichuan.

This attention has raised new curiosity: Who are the Chinese? How do they live, work and play? How much do we really know about the 1.3 billion people who inhabit this vast country?

These questions are visually answered in Tom Carter’s CHINA: Portrait of a People, the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author.

Carter, a San Francisco City native, spent 2 years backpacking 56,000 kilometers (35,000 miles) across the vast Middle Kingdom to visit over 200 cities and villages, including some of the most remote locations in the country: from the steaming jungles of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan to the frozen banks of the Amur River in Manchuria. En route, he discovered and photographed immense geographic and ethnic diversity.

“What the photographs herein reveal is that China is not just one place, one people, but 33 distinct regions populated by 56 different ethnicities, each with their own languages, customs and lifestyles,” writes Carter in his introduction. “It is my most sincere hope that this book unites the people immortalized in its pages – Tibetan pilgrims and Beijing scholars, Uyghur Muslims and Shanghai bankers, Hong Kong millionaires and Shanxi miners – in celebration of their glorious cultures.

Publisher Pete Spurrier of Blacksmith Books remarked: There are several books of photography already on the market that focus on China’s history or famous sites, but CHINA: Portrait of a People is the first of this scope by a single author devoted to Chinese PEOPLE! Tom Carter has single-handedly photographed almost every aspect of life humanity across the PRC.”

CHINA: Portrait of a People includes a forward by celebrated Chinese authoress Anchee Min (Red Azalea, Empress Orchid) who says “Tom Carter is an extraordinary photographer whose powerful work captures the heart and soul of the Chinese people.” Shanghai rebel writer Mian Mian (Candy, La la la) writes the epilogue: “Tom Carter’s photo book is an honest and objective record of the Chinese and our way of life...”

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CHINA: Portrait of a People, by Tom Carter

Genre: Travel / Photography / Art / China

ISBN-13: 978-988-99799-42

Size: 15cm x 15cm, soft cover, 640 pages, 800 full color images, with maps of each province

Published: Summer 2008 by Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong, in association with Haven Books

Price: HK$280 / US$35.95

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Real China, by Tom Carter

Backpacker savant Tom Carter offers his top five “real” China destinations:

Shandong
Where Chinese civilization as we know it began, Shandong is a wealth of history and tradition. From the birthplaces of Sun Tzu and Confucius to sacred Tai Shan, this is Han culture at its most unadulterated.

Ningxia
The smallest and least touristed province, Ningxia is truly one of those places where travelers feel like the only yangren in China. Droves of unemployed workers on the street corners take unabashed fascination in watching you watch them.

Yunnan
This kaleidoscope of culture has the highest concentration of minority groups in all of China, whom appear to us not unlike resplendent yet elusive jungle birds in an effort to preserve their centuries-old customs.

Beijing
Compared to gleaming Shanghai and Hong Kong, we come to Beijing because of its venerable charm, not in spite of it. Amidst the commotion of hyper urbanization, the capital city’s remaining hutongs capture life exactly as it has been in China for a thousand years.

Tibet
China’s final frontier and spiritual Shangri-la. Lhasa might be destined to succumb to red-hat tourism, but journey to the far eastern or western regions, where nomadic shepherds, colorful pilgrims and remote monasteries have yet to encounter a foreign face.

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Tom Carter is the author of ‘CHINA: Portrait of a People’ coming soon from Hong Kong publisher Blacksmith Books.

Purchase CHINA: Portrait of a People online
View the China portraits video on YouTube
Also check out Tom Carter's super-cool China postcards

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