Renowned photographer to display new works in town

Liu Heung Shing is scouting locations in Goiás, Brazil. Photos courtesy of SWCAC unless otherwise stated

Liu Heung Shing, the first Chinese to win a Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for documenting the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, will bring his latest project to Shenzhen this November.

Apart from his photos recording the collapse of the Soviet Union under the stewardship of Mikhail Gorbachev, Liu is known for keeping track of the rise of China through the unprecedented economic reforms in the last decades of the 20th century.

The new exhibition, to be held at the Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shekou between Nov. 14 and Feb. 28 next year, will display Liu's magnum opus: photos captured over three years on an odyssey to document the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Liu Heung Shing during a news briefing at SWCAC yesterday.

"Old Roads New Connections" provides a comprehensive visual record of how the initiative has changed lives and connected people across vast regions.

To complete this project, Liu traveled across 21 countries and 50 regions, covering a cumulative distance of 267,000 kilometers, visiting cities along the historical path of the ancient Silk Road.

The project is so far the most challenging he has undertaken, Liu told a news briefing yesterday.

Focusing on the builders of huge projects like the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, the everyday life of people like Wenzhou merchants who sell Chinese clothing in Italy, and people who serve as a bond across time and space, Liu's photos reveal to viewers the tangible influences of the BRI.

(From top) Dancers from the Beijing Modern Dance Company perform in the Gobi Desert in Dunhuang; Zhao Liang and her French husband Jean-Claude Fabrice work in their family vineyard in Saint-Émilion, France; Chinese and Uzbek technicians at a BYD plant in Jizzakh Region, Uzbekistan. Photos by Liu Heung Shing

Countless ordinary faces weave together a picture of cities along the route, vividly illustrating how China, in an era of infrastructure connectivity, trade interconnection, and cultural integration, embraces the world and builds bridges that transcend race, geography, and culture.

The exhibition is curated by Karen Smith and designed by French architect Margo Renisio.

Previously, Liu's solo exhibition "Liu Heung Shing, Lens, Time and People" opened in 2023 at the Museum of Pudong, Shanghai, and drew a record 420,000 visitors. The same exhibition toured Shenzhen in 2024.

Liu traveled across 21 countries and 50 regions over three years for the project.

Dates: Nov. 14-Feb. 28, 2027

Venue: Sea World Culture and Arts Center, Shekou

Metro: Line 2/8 to Sea World Station (海上世界站), Exit A