Li Zhensheng (photojournalist)
| Li Zhensheng 李振盛 |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
22 September 1940 Dalian |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Website |
lizhensheng |
lizhensheng
Li Zhensheng (Chinese: 李振盛; pinyin: Lǐ Zhènshèng; born 22 September 1940) is a Chinese photojournalist who captured some of the most telling images from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, better known as the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
His employment at the Heilongjiang Daily, which followed the party line, and his decision to wear a red arm band indicating an alliance with Chairman Mao Zedong, allowed him access to scenes otherwise only described in written and verbal accounts.
His 2003 book "Red-Color News Soldier" exhibits both the revolutionary ideals and many of the atrocities that occurred during the Cultural Revolution. The Heilongjiang Daily newspaper had a strict policy in accordance with a government dictate that only "positive" images could be published, which consisted mostly of smiling revolutionaries offering praise for Chairman Mao. The "negative" images, which depicted the atrocities of the time, were hidden beneath a floorboard in his house before he brought them to light at a photo exhibit in 1988.
Li Zhensheng was born to a poor family in Dalian, Liaoning. At the time of his birth the city was located in Kwantung Leased Territory, where Japan maintained the puppet regime, Manchukuo. His mother died when he was three, and his older brother, who was a member of the People's Liberation Army was killed during the Chinese Civil War. Li helped his father, who was a cook on a steamship and later as a farmer, until Li was 10 years old. Li rose to the top of his class despite starting school late. He later earned a spot at the Changchun Film School, where he acquired much of his photographic knowledge. In 1963, he briefly held a job at the Heilongjiang Daily, but the Socialist Education Movement intervened. Li ended up back in the countryside for nearly two years, living with peasants and studying the works of Chairman Mao.
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