On warm winter days, Yang Liheng, 89, enjoys sitting by the window and looking through old photos. These photos bring him joy and happiness once more.
For Yang. one of the long-expected activities during the Spring Festival is to take photos with family members. On the early morning of the second day of the Chinese New Year when the whole family reunite, he would dress up and wait for the photo to be taken.
Yang became a photographer in the late 1950s. With his camera, Yang recorded the great changes of his hometown over time. "I had a painful childhood, but I got a chance to be a photographer after the founding（成立）of the People's Republic of China." Yang told Beijing Review. "I want to record, in the form of photographs, the. local customs, the scenes and people's brave spirit of fighting against the hard conditions here in my hometown."
"I used to take pictures for everyone else, but seldom turned my camera at my family members," Yang said. "My grandson gave me the idea to record the growth and development of my own family. "Taking family photos then became a tradition for Yang's family. Though now some of his grandchildren are working and living in other cities, they try their best to return home during the Spring Festival and prepare for the special moment.
Last year was an important year for Yang Liheng. Most of his photos were displayed in Yinchuan to show the development of the area over the past sixty years.
