Taiwanese Artist Brings Burma, 'Land of Shadows,' to Light
A photo essay by Taiwanese artist Chien-Chi Chang, "Burma, Land of Shadows," explores the paradoxical lives of the intensely Buddhist country under the shadow of the military regime that has held Nobel Laureate Aung san Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's democracy movement, under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years. Posing as a tourist in the country to take the pictures for the essay, Chang describes Burmese society as a real-life version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
A new Magnum in Motion photo essay by Taiwanese artist Chien-Chi Chang, "Burma, Land of Shadows," explores the paradoxical lives of the intensely Buddhist country under the shadow of the military regime that has held Nobel Laureate Aung san Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's democracy movement, under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years. Posing as a tourist in the country to take the pictures for the essay, Chang describes Burmese society as a real-life version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Burma was in focus earlier this month at the Asia Society New York program "Voices from Burma," where a panel of artists — writers Deborah Eisenberg and Amitav Ghosh, actress Kathryn Grody, playwright Wallace Shawn and Burmese dissidents U Agga and Law Eh Soe — read excerpts from the anthology Nowhere to be Home: Narratives from Survivors of Burma's Military Regime. Watch the complete program here.
Watch Chien-Chi Chang's photo essay: