Li Zhensheng, the Lucie-Award winning photojournalist who took over 100,000 photos during cultural revolution, reportedly passed away in New York. It’s impossible to revisit CR history without the massive archive he left behind while working as a reporter at Heilongjiang Daily 
Years ago I shadowed him around Queens for a feature profile—a lovely guy with a charming (and well-deserved) ego. He gave me a tour of his community and his traditional opera group. We messaged thsis January. He has SO MANY stories.
He got to take many assignments cuz the seniors dumped work on him, the youngest in the team. Once an active “red guard”, he hid about 20,000 negatives under his house floor, including many that were considered “smearing” the cultural revolution. This is him working on set.
He said he wasn’t sure what were the point of keeping photos then, but a gut feeling told him they’d be of use someday.
Here is one striking moments he captured: monks being publicly condemned and forced to hold the banner saying: “what Buddhist teaching? It’s all bullshit.”
Here is one striking moments he captured: monks being publicly condemned and forced to hold the banner saying: “what Buddhist teaching? It’s all bullshit.”
He also captured the brutal scene of Ren Zhongyi wearing “tall hat” & being publicly shamed. Ren was a senior CCP official & later became the party secretary of Guangdong.
(Ren’s grandson is an influencer with fascinating relationship with CCP, but that’s for another day).
(Ren’s grandson is an influencer with fascinating relationship with CCP, but that’s for another day).
And this is him showing me the wide shot he took during cultural revolution long before the panorama pics. The sign says”...American imperialism’s violation of Vietnam!”
And this collage (his word: 接片) shows a public gathering in 1965 during Socialist Education Movement (四清运动): 40,000 people attended the meeting to publicly shame & condemn the “enemies”.
Ending the thread with his book: Red-Color News Soldier. He’s my 1st source who passed away. On top of personal feelings abt him & his work, it’s also painful knowing we might have lost some of the most valuable memories about Cultural Revolution.
smile.amazon.com/dp/0714843083/…
smile.amazon.com/dp/0714843083/…
One more thing: he never really romanticized the risky act to preserve all the photos—it could’ve cost his life or ruined his family. He thought what drove him was “a vague sense of duty for the history.”
That pretty sums up half of journalists in the world, myself included.
That pretty sums up half of journalists in the world, myself included.
*pretty much
