China border regions brought to life in stunning photographs
China at its Limits, by writer/photographer Matthias Messmer and researcher Hsin-Mei Chuang, contains over 400 pages packed with striking images taken over five years and 50,000 kilometres of travelling China’s remote border regions
China’s land border stretches for about 22,000 kilometres – the longest in the world – and despite the sheer size of the country, its authorities successfully project the image of a unified, monolithic state.
But as suggested by the old Chinese proverb “the mountains are high and the emperor is far away”, residents of far-flung parts of the country do not always march to the same beat as those living in the capital. And as China ascends to superpower status, these remote border regions are acquiring new significance as lands of opportunity.
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These border areas are the focus of the handsome new hardback China at its Limits, by writer/photographer Matthias Messmer and cultural researcher Hsin-Mei Chuang.
Over more than 400 pages of images, the book takes readers to some of the most remote, exotic areas on the edge of China, such as derelict gambling houses on the Myanmese border and the abandoned trading town of Maimaicheng in modern-day Mongolia.
Over the centuries, China’s rulers have regularly shut the nation off from the outside world – most recently in the era of Mao Zedong. But since the borders started to be reopened in the 1980s, launching China on its path to prosperity, the border areas have played an increasingly important role in the country’s success, the authors write.