The 1982 photobook “Dear Old Days” by Japanese photographer

[CHN Bamboo]

The 1982 photobook “Dear Old Days” by Japanese photographer Ryoji Akiyama will soon be available as a reprint published by Seisodo.
For the series, a young Ryoji Akiyama visited China – coinciding with the ten year anniversary of the normalization of Chinese-Japanese relations – and photographed Chinese children in various parts of the country. Akiyama portrayed the children within the boundaries of play to capture them from an intimate distance. The book is a stellar example of Akiyama’s sharp observation and photographic sensibilities.

The above is an introduction to this book.

Two eight-year-old Chinese children unfold their calligraphy scrolls in 1982. On the scrolls is written in Chinese characters "long live the Chinese-Japanese children's friendship."

Children at a Chinese school play around under the watchful eye of their teacher.

Children at a Chinese primary school have a break between classes. The boys are wearing some kind of canvas belt. There are a wallboard bulletin and a plant corner in the classroom.

It is lunch time at a Chinese primary school. The children's food comes in either aluminum boxes or enamel bowls.

Children are netting fish on the Dianchi Lake of Kunming, capital city of Yunnan Province.

 

[CHN Bamboo]

A school bus converted from an old truck transports the children of the workers and staff at the Kunming Iron and Steel Factory, Yunnan Province.

Two Chinese boys walking together are good friends. Both boys are in the same grade at the same primary school.

A Chinese girl is reading a book in the library.

Three Chinese children are playing nearby a typical canal in Suzhou of east China's Jiangsu Province. Their suits look much more stylish than those of their contemporaries in western China.

A Chinese boy is doing his homework. The military-green school bag was favored by many Chinese students during the time.

Two Chinese boys are playing on the street.

Children are playing under the watchful eye of their teacher.

Chinese ethnic minority children have fun at the Flaming Mountain of Turpan in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
(I couldn't find the repaired photo of this, so I post the old version.)

A group shot of Chinese children from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Two boys are having a soda in the park.

Two children from Inner Mongolia.

Children from Hainan.

Some of the children sent by the local government to meet the Japanese photographer. Apparently the children were carefully dressed up, and Akiyama took some pictures of the children in order not to embarrass the organizers.

1983, the early days of China's reform and opening up, with the help of the Chinese photographers Association, Akiyama went to many parts of China. He took photos in Suzhou, Chengdu, Harbin, Kunming, Guilin, Xinjiang, inner Mongolia, etc., and even Hainan, where foreigners were banned at the time.

The cover of photobook, a little girl who secretly opened her eyes while doing eye exercises.

The children lined up to climb the stairs.

Captured the moment a child jumped up.