Old photo of modern woman records China’s progress  

22年前穿短裙女孩照 當事人現身已經50歲

(ECNS) -- Xinhua News Agency released a 22-year-old photo of a woman in a miniskirt, seen as a record of China's opening-up policy.

The black-and-white picture, shot 22 years ago on a commercial street in Dalian,Liaoning province, shows the woman in a stylish miniskirt looking back and flashing a smile among other pedestrians.

Miniskirts were rarely seen at that time, when most Chinese were modestly dressed.

The photo illustrates a strong sense of the time, evoking curiosity about how the woman in the picture has been getting on in the past two decades, during which China experienced profound changes.

After noticing the old picture, a local evening news agency in Dalian launched a program to show how China's reform and opening-up changed people's lives over the past two decades.

The news agency then published a report: "Woman in miniskirt, we want to know your old stories."

They soon received a phone call from a local resident surnamed Liu, who claimed the woman was his old neighbor. With his help, they were able to contact the woman.

"I had no idea that I was photographed," said Chen Xiaolu, who is now 50 years old.

"At that time, I was young. Although my family always said I was overdressed, I loved to follow fashion," said Chen, who was then a cashier at a foreign trade company in Wafangdian city, Liaoning province.

"At present, my family and I are living in a 200-square-meter house, which is much larger than our previous 60-square-meter apartment," Chen said. "But for the reform and opening-up policy, how can we live such a wealthy life now?"

Chen represents a group of Chinese women in the 1990s who were determined to break social conventions and embrace new things, said Zhang Xiaolong, who took the old picture.

Although Chen is an ordinary Chinese woman, she can be seen as a symbol of an era, a transition from poor, isolated China to a rich and growing power, Zhang said.