1980s: Communist China entered into global trade and international capital. The goal was financial but new money also brought new values and new ways of life. Polly Braden's photography is an intimate response to the material and psychological effects of the changes experienced by the country's new urban class. Shot over three years in Shanghai, Xiamen, Shenzhen and Kunming, this is a revelatory portrait. Braden shows how a casual glance, a moment of doubt or a quick trip to the shopping mall say as much about modern China as any image of a dam, a protest or a teeming workforce.
