Profile | From a youth in the Cultural Revolution to a photographer and critic, one of the best known in China: the life of Bao Kun
- The son of a former Nationalist military officer, Bao Kun was sent to work in the photo section of a Beijing department store, where he spent nine years
- Bao became a photographer, shooting the album cover for a famous musician, then a curator, critic and mentor to young photographers, he tells Thomas Bird
My father, Bao Fengchi, was an educated man, who spoke English and wrote books on military strategy in his youth. He rose to become a senior officer in the Northeastern Army under the Fengtian clique, one of many opposing military factions in the warlord period.
In 1928, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek led the Northern Expedition and unified China under the Kuomintang. (The Old Marshal) Zhang Zuolin was killed on his way back to Manchuria and his son, (the Young Marshal) Zhang Xueliang, was made commander of the region.
My father was serving in Shenyang when, in 1931, the Japanese attacked. Zhang did not allow any resistance, letting the people retreat south instead.
That’s essentially how I came to be born a Beijinger of northeastern stock.
Early birds
I was born when my father was almost 50, in 1953. I was the fourth son in my family. Due to my father’s past he was deemed a counter-revolutionary and we grew up poor. I was raised in the hutongs with no material comforts, not even a ball to play with. One of my first memories is of seeing people killing sparrows (part of Mao Zedong’s Four Pests campaign in 1958).
