In May 2016, we first publicized the “cliff village” in Liangshan, Sichuan Province through reports. In the four years since then, we have interviewed the cliff village nine times, sent out dozens of reports, and contributed to the national adjustment of poverty alleviation policies in the entire Liangshan Prefecture, and played a catalytic role in Liangshan’s four-year change across the millennium. In order to further contribute to poverty alleviation and help more children in poor mountainous areas who are in dire need of help.

In 2018, with the participation and support of Sky3 Seeds Foundation, we have researched hundreds of poor villages in Guizhou, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan and other provinces, collected dozens of pictures of poor families, video footage and field surveys of families and their villages, and focused our communication on the most typical families and villages to directly and help promote governments at all levels to bring about great changes in these poor villages. We focus on the most typical families and villages, and directly help to promote the governments at all levels to bring great changes to these poor villages.

Meanwhile, during the research and reporting process, we contacted various public welfare organizations in China to raise funds for poor students and families with disabilities, and raised more than 6 million yuan in 2019 and 2020 alone. Under the supervision of the China Social Welfare Foundation and other organizations, the projects to help students and families with disabilities have been implemented one by one, benefiting hundreds of people.

In 2021, China achieved full poverty alleviation, and the implementation of the video poverty alleviation project also achieved results far beyond the initial expectations, becoming a highlight in helping poverty alleviation. In particular, the cliff village and the zip line village became a typical story of China’s poverty alleviation, and became one of the top ten iconic events of poverty alleviation in a series of poverty alleviation summaries in People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, CCTV and major portals with a great impact. More than 40 reports formed by these stories have spread to more than one billion.

These image stories have also won the Golden Image Award, the highest award for photography in China, the China News Award, and several national awards. The results of the Image Poverty Alleviation Project are of far-reaching significance in documenting this history of China’s fight against poverty, with both image and sociological values. Based on this, we have assembled and published a collection of the contents of the Image Poverty Alleviation Project for more than four years, including the contents about the poverty alleviation project outside the Image Poverty Alleviation filmed in these years, to systematically present the great changes before and after the poverty alleviation in these areas.

As Tony Saich, former president of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said in the preface:

 “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and this stunning photo book repeatedly proves this point – it powerfully records the struggles and helplessness of individuals and families living in poverty. Through these photos, we see struggle, suffering, and hope for the future in equal measure. I believe that these photo reports will touch everyone who reads them. In particular, the series of reports on “Cliff Village” has won several awards, including the China Photography Golden Image Award, which is fully deserved. 

I would like to say to the readers who are about to open this book that these photos will not only move people, but will also push us to reflect on the fact that outside of the well-fed lives you and I have today, there are still many compatriots floating in poverty. Happily, with the attention of programs like Images for Poverty Alleviation and the support of governments at all levels, hope is at hand, and tomorrow will surely be a better day.