Supreme Golden Lotus: A 24-year continuous photographic reportage documenting China's last generation of bound feet women

Author: Li Nan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: This book is a photographic work documenting the foot-binding custom of approximately 2 billion Chinese women that lasted for over a thousand years on the land of China. Photographer Li Nan spent 24 years traveling across many provinces and regions, including Shandong, Yunnan, Beijing, Shaanxi, Shanxi, etc., unhesitatingly focusing his lens on the lives of the last generation of women with bound feet, who were on the verge of extinction. It focuses on foot-binding, the history of Chinese women's foot-binding, the current lives of these women, and a special group of people marked by their era during China's modernization process, recording the final pages of this long and painful history of foot-binding.
Author Biography: Li Nan was born in Jinan City, Shandong Province in 1961. He graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Shandong Art Institute in 1989. He held solo photography exhibitions in Jinan and Beijing in 1990 and 1996, respectively. In 1993, he began working as a news photographer and served as a photojournalist for Shandong Huabao and Dazhong Ribao. His photographic works have been published in magazines such as LEICAWORLD in Germany, ColorFoto, ASIANWEEK in the United States, M in the Netherlands, and GRAZIA in Italy. In 1995 and 1996, he won the first prize and special prize in the professional category of the 2nd and 3rd Canon Cup "Beauty of Asia," respectively. In 1996, he received a gold medal at the 39th World Press Photo (WPP) competition, a special award at the 1996 SSF World Sports Photography Grand Prix, and the highest individual achievement award in Chinese photography—the Jinxiang Award. In 1997, he won the only gold medal at the 24th Black and White Biennial Exhibition of the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP). In 1998, he was honored as an outstanding photographer with both art and craftsmanship in China. In 1998, the China Photographic Publishing House published his reportage photography album Li Nan Reports. In 2000, CCTV's Eastern Sons program aired a personal interview with him. In 2001 and 2004, his photographic works were exhibited at the Pingyao International Photography Festival. In 2002, he won the Bingxin Photography Literature Award. In June 2004, six of his photographic works were collected by the Guangdong Art Museum. In 2005, he published the personal documentary photography collection Jueshi Jinlian under the "Black Lens" series. In 2005, he was featured in a personal interview with the British BBC and held a solo photography exhibition at the Beijing 798 Century Impressions Photography Gallery.