Photographer documents remarkable transformation of village in SW China’s Guizhou over course of more than two decades

A photography exhibition providing a stage for people to learn about the changes that a Miao village has undergone over the course of the past more than 20 years was opened to the public on April 20 at the Guizhou Provincial Museum in Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou Province. A total of more than 150 pictures taken by a photographer named Yang Andi were put on display at the exhibition.

Members of the public admire photos on display for a photography exhibition at the Guizhou Provincial Museum in Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou Province. (Photo/Zhou Yanling)

The exhibition was divided into six sections to give the viewing public a glimpse of the tremendous development and changes in the locality.

Suoga village, located in Liupanshui city of Guizhou, was built into an ecological museum in 1998 under the joint efforts of the Chinese government and the Norwegian government. It has been dubbed as “a museum without walls.”

Yang has taken more than 10,000 pictures of the village since 1995 when he first visited the locality. “I was not only shocked by the fact that the local people were living a difficult life, but also was impressed by their unique culture and their positive attitudes toward life,” said Yang.

Photo shows pictures of Suoga village taken by photographer Yang Andi. (Photo/Zhou Yanling)

The first photo Yang took in Suoga village is of a little girl who was herding sheep together on the slope of a mountain. In the background of the photo, women from the Miao ethnic group can be seen doing farm work on the same barren mountainside. In the 1990s, Suoga village suffered from severe rocky desertification, with grass being unable to grow on the land afterwards.

Over the past years, Yang captured many of the fresh moments the village has witnessed, including the completion of the first road paved to connect the village with the outside world, the first TV set bought by the village, and a new community built for relocated local villagers, among many other firsts. These images accurately depict the process that the village has taken to gradually transform from an impoverished locality, which was once beset with encroaching desertification, into a developed village community, which nowadays boasts a scenic area scattered with thick forests.

“Suoga village has undergone remarkable changes over the past more than 20 years,” said Yang, who introduced that the ecological museum has connected the village with the outside world, making Suoga village known even by international friends overseas.

Members of the public admire photos on display for a photography exhibition at the Guizhou Provincial Museum in Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou Province. (Photo/Zhou Yanling)

In 2021, Robert Adolf, a young man from Germany, visited Suoga village and also snapped some photos of the community. In the photos he took, one can see neatly arranged houses, asphalt roads, and a lush landscape surrounding the village.

Photo shows pictures of Suoga village taken by photographer Yang Andi. (Photo/Zhou Yanling)

“I’m really impressed by China’s anti-poverty efforts, which have turned Suoga village from a barren land into a beautiful place,” said Adolf.