China News Agency, Kunming, April 14th: The Hani photographer has watched the terraced fields for 30 years: recording the people who cultivated the "world heritage"
Author Xiong Jiaxin
In April, Kunming is full of greenery of spring. Citizens walk into the Yunnan Literature and Art Museum and can see the splendor of the four seasons in the hundreds of photos of Hani terraced fields.
The people who were photographed on the terraces were either working or resting, and the hope of planting and the joy of harvesting were frozen.
The earliest moment of light and shadow is more than 30 years old, from the spring of 1989.
From 1989 to the present, in the deep canyon of thousands of kilometers in the Ailao Mountains, Hani photographer Luo Han entered and exited Hani villages and terraced fields hundreds of times, took more than 100,000 photos, and wrote more than 600,000 words of interview notes.
Over the past 30 years, he has focused his attention on ordinary places: cottages, rice farmers, children, terraced fields, cattle... just to record "the most real moments that happen under this blue sky".
Honghe Hani Terraces is located in the southeast of Yunnan Province, with a total area of about 1 million mu. It is an agricultural cultural spectacle created by people of all ethnic groups, mainly the Hani people. It has a history of more than 1,300 years and is known as "earth sculpture" ".
In June 2013, the Honghe Hani Terraces were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
In Luo Han's view, Hani terraced fields have "living vitality", not only because they condense the wisdom of generations of farming, but also always gift and nourish the people of one side with plentiful products.
"In thousands of cycles of four seasons, ordinary and great working people farm day after day, and they are the source of vitality for the Hani Terraces."
"The timing of farming is the most important background of the Hani terrace culture. It is the rule that the Hani people have continued for thousands of years. The festivals of the Hani people are also determined according to the cyclical growth order of rice crops." Luo Han's photographic recording cycle also follows the year-based unit. The social rhythm of farming has left a "living cultural temperature".
Among the many images, Luo Han believes that the works during the harvest season are the most emotional.
The wind blows the rice waves, the rice rises and shines like gold in the sun, and even more brilliant are the faces of joy.
"It's hard to imagine that such a hard-working nation strives to create 'miracles' to fight against nature, yet it has been unable to escape poverty and backwardness for a long time." More than 30 years ago, Luo Han was on a muddy road in Yangjie Township, Yuanjiang County. While photographing three boys, they look eagerly at a car away.
In 2018, Luo Han searched for the three boys in the photos.
"Gone are the days of the Hani people's rugged dirt roads, dilapidated soil palm houses and 'feeding from the sky'."
Year after year of filming, Luo Han has witnessed the great changes of the new era on the land where his ancestors made great changes.
He photographed the "Hometown of Begging" where there are now many high-rise buildings. He visited villages that were lifted out of poverty one by one, and saw young people return to their hometowns to bring new vitality, and sell red rice and other terraced agricultural products across the country through the Internet.
At the same time, the Hani people have integrated the ancient villages and terraced fields culture in the style of "Shanye Xianju" into the rural revitalization, creating a pastoral complex represented by the old village of Lanpu.
"Red River Valley is emerging as a new 'Noma Amei' (an ideal homeland for the Hani people)," said Luo Han.
(Finish)