Chinese Leaders in the Eyes of a Photographer

As a journalistic photographer, he has taken pictures for Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, but feel it's really a pity that he has had no opportunity to take photos for Jiang Zemin.

Qian Sijie, the photographer, linked his 40 years of photographing closely with China's top leaders. But when Jiang became China's third generation leader, he had already retired.

"You see a lot of Jiang in newspapers. He has a very busy timetable," said the 72-year-old retired photographer, who still loves to look at photos.

From 1964 to 1969, Qian was posted as a full-time photographer for Mao. "In the eyes of many Chinese people, Mao was god." But in the eyes of Qian, Mao was just a humorous old man.

"For the first time I met him, he said to me, 'I'm a proletariat, but you have money (in Chinese, Qian and money is the same word). We will cooperate well.'"

In the following six years, Qian took hundreds of photos of Mao in various places across the country. The photo "Chairman Mao Swims in the Yangtze River", which was published in all Chinese newspapers, printed on posters all over the country and on stamps for several times, was out of Qian's hand. In the picture, Mao, in a long bathrobe and smiling, stands on the deck of a ship, beckoning to the people on the bank of the Yangtze River. "That was in 1966, in Wuhan, the Chairman had swam in the river for an hour."

"But except pictures of Mao meeting foreign guests, I didn't take any pictures of Mao on the international stage."

In the period from the founding of the New China in 1949 to the 1972's Nixon's visit to China, China was separated from the world community. Mao Zedong only visited one foreign country in his life,the former Soviet Union.

"It was Deng Xiaoping that guided China back into the world community," said Qian, recalling Deng's first visit to the United States. In 1974, Deng Xiaoping, then Vice-Premier, addressed the United Nations' Special Meeting.

"I remembered clearly that he was talking about the 'three worlds' theory and the conference hall was full of people," said Qian, who was a Xinhua correspondent stationed in the United Nations Headquarters at that time.

Most of pictures of Deng's 1979 visit to the United States and Japan were taken by Qian. "When watching a Texas horse racing, Deng put on a cowboy hat, which impressed the American people greatly." Qian smiles, "We all thought he wouldn't wear that hat."

Reading books and newspapers has become a major part of the retirement life of Qian. He said that the content of today's pictures of top leaders are richer and the images of leaders are of greater affinity.

"Jiang is an active leader and he is versatile, which gives more space for photographers to work." Qian pointed to a picture of Jiang taken during the recent Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Informal Meeting. Jiang, in Brunei ethnic clothes, waving his greetings to reporters covering the meeting.

"I envy today's photographers, they are well equipped and they have good subjects to cover."






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