No Western photographer is as intimately acquainted with China as Yann Layma, who speaks Chinese and has spent nine years working there over the course of a 20-year career. Laymas reportage of this vast country is extraordinarily complete: he portrays city and country; traditional customs and the shock of modernity; and every aspect of public and private life. His style is personal and poetic, and he is alive to nuances of gesture and expression. From the classical architecture of the Great Wall to the skyscrapers of up-to-the minute Shanghai, he captures the essence of one of the worlds great nations.

With an introduction by Layma and five essays by highly regarded writersincluding Dai Sijie, author of the celebrated novel Balzac and the Little Chinese SeamstressChina is the most significant and comprehensive visual book on its subject to be published in our time.