BEIJING, April 27,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Standing in the streets of
Beijing in 1978, Gregoire de Gaulle, a 23-year-old French young
man, was on his first visit to the faraway country and was eager to
take everything he saw with a camera in hand.
Before that, his father went to China in 1964. "I was still young at that
time, but I know it was a rare trip for him. My father brought back
many posters, books, photos, and important videos he took while in
China," Gregoire told the Global
Times on Wednesday in Beijing. "It
made our whole family very excited and our lives started to be
connected to China."
Fascination with a country
China has been an integral part
of French photographer Gregoire de
Gaulle's entire life, thanks to his father, Bernard de Gaulle. His family has made great
contributions to the relationship between China and France.
His great-uncle, former French president Charles de Gaulle, was the first Western leader
to establish diplomatic ties between his country and the People's Republic of China in 1964. By
September of that year, Gregoire's father had organized the first
ever exhibition of French industrial tools in China with a second the following year.
Bernard de Gaulle was the former
chairman of the Comité France Chine and was known as a China-France
friendship messenger.
Ever since he was a young boy, Gregoire was deeply affected by
the Chinese stories and travel experiences recounted by his father.
"My father's fascination with China and love for Chinese culture filled me
with expectations and curiosity," Gregoire recalled.
When he had a two-month vacation after service in Karachi, Pakistan in 1978, he decided to start
his own China story and do
something that his great-uncle, Charles de
Gaulle had wanted to do before his passing in 1970. He
didn't even think about where he would go as he had only ever heard
of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
"I was lucky then because, starting from 1978, China started the opening-up policy. I was
able to explore the whole of China." For Gregoire at that time,
China "was a completely new world,
a world that I did not understand at all."
At that time, the roads were very wide, but there were few cars.
"People's main means of transportation were bicycles. As a
foreigner, I also joined them. I made many friends in Beijing, and we took trains and boats
together, from Beijing to
Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Shanghai and Guangzhou."
He was deeply attracted by the scenes in front of Chinese
houses: Children set up benches on the roadside to do their
homework, adults were busy washing and hanging clothes, and the
elderly were playing chess and cards.
Continued friendship
"I have always been moved by small things in daily lives of
ordinary people when visiting China," he told the Global Times at a new
photo exhibition in Beijing on
Wednesday, which pays tribute to his family's contribution to the
China-France friendship.
"From a human perspective, it is a grand narrative; but from a
small, individual perspective, it also has a very unique
charm."
Therefore, Gregoire focused his lens on the daily lives of
ordinary Chinese people. "There was no big difference between
China in 1978 and China in 1964 in terms of architectural
design, people's clothing, and transportation methods," as he had
seen so many photos and videos taken by his father in China in the 1960s. However, since 1978, "I
could deeply feel the huge changes every time I went to
China."
He was shocked by China's rapid
development in recent decades, from infrastructural transformations
to an improvement in people's daily lives. "And the cities have
since become so large and people are full of vigor."
In 2013, Bernard de Gaulle
planned to visit his eldest son Remi de
Gaulle who was working in Shanghai. Gregoire was worried that his
90-year-old father would not be able to complete the trip by
himself, so he came to China to
accompany his father. They visited Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hong
Kong, taking many photos during their travels.
One year later, an exhibition featuring two groups of photos
that Gregoire took in 1978 and 2013 respectively kicked off in
Shanghai. His photos of
China were also exhibited in
2019.
Despite the great changes in the cities, he was happy to see
that the enchanting simplicities of life had remained largely the
same. These little things still "fascinated me." "China's fine traditions and the kind and
positive spirit of the Chinese people have never changed," he told
the Global Times.
The year 2024 marks the 60th
anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France. He accepted an invitation from
Southwest China's Guizhou Province to take photos of
China's Huajiang Grand Canyon
Bridge, still under construction and set to be world's highest
bridge, to highlight China's fast
development and introduce it to the world.
Although he only met his great-uncle (General De Gaulle) three
times, he shared the same sincere feelings toward China as his father, great-uncle, and other
family members including the fourth generation.
"I have always felt a great friendship between my family and the
Chinese people. I find Chinese people have really deep emotions
toward our family. I hope that in the future, there will be a
fourth generation to carry on our friendship," he said, adding that
his children are already interested in promoting cultural and
artistic exchanges between the two countries. His nephew is married
to a Chinese woman.
Gregoire also said that he knows he's better known in
China than in France because of his great-uncle.
"So the story between our family and China continues."
Read more:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202404/1311308.shtml
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SOURCE Global Times