Sternstunden der Menschheit: Yi Zhinan's Tears

The portrait "Yi Zhiyuan: Love, Life and Sad Moment" (易知难：她的亲人、她的生活、她刹那间的悲伤) was shot by Xiao Quan, one of the best professional photographers in China. This photo was taken in 1990 and became extremely successful after been published. On a photography show in Chengdu, many girls stood still in front of this photo and didn't want to leave. "The portrait made many girls crazy," said Xiao Quan, "they wish they could have such a photo of their own in their life."

When Xiao Quan met Yi, she was in a piano room, with a cigarette in hand. In the year of 1990, her life was not easy at all: she had to earn more money for her family and support her husband, who was studying in Beijing Dance Academy... Xiao Quan saw her eyes full of tears, he didn't talk to her, instead he sealed that beautiful moment in picture. There was silence in that gloomy piano room, Yi was a singer, however nobody remembered her song, nobody understood the difficulties she once had in her best years.

After almost 20 years, the lady in the portrait attracted people's attention again, her beauty and her life have been intensively discussed in many forums. Here is one of those threads: http://www.douban.com/photos/photo/364947090/

Sternstunden der Menschheit of The China Times