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I WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL
Gu Zheng
The lack of educational opportunities for school-aged children is one of the great blunders in China. The children's right to education should be granted with dignity. However, under the rush of the economic development, some short-sighted actions created insufficient funding and sometimes no funding at all for education. According to photographer Xie Hailong, when he began "The Hope Project" there were 200 million illiterate people in China. In remote parts of China, four million children annually lost the opportunity for education, one fourth of whom lost this chance because of poverty. Facing this difficult reality, Xie Hailong started the "Hope Project." Starting in 1990, he spent ten years traveling on behalf of this project. He covered over 20,000 kilometers, visiting 26 provinces and 128 counties. He made contact with over 10,000 children at more than 100 schools, taking over 10,000 photos. He used this photography to advocate for children’s educational rights. We show our deepest respect for Xie Hailong for his courage, conscience and perseverance. His photographs not only serve as a valuable historical record, but they are largely responsible for bringing this serious social problem to the attention of the broader Chinese society. The quality of humanitarianism in his work also serves as a model and possible direction for other serious Chinese photographers. No matter from which position you view his work, Xie Hailong’s contribution to the society is enough to have his name written in the history books, as the "Chinese Lewis Hine".
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