Sipping soda, playing games with friends, frolicking on the beach, gossiping during the class break, and eating lunch in the school canteen…

The photos of Chinese children in the early 1980s captured by Japanese photographer Ryoji Akiyama have inspired waves of nostalgia in China, especially among the millennials who reminisce about the innocence and carefree ways of their childhoods.

Dear Old Days, an Akiyama solo featuring classical shots from his eponymous photo book and its sequels, is to kick off this Saturday at Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing.

Between 1981 and 1982, Akiyama travelled to China five separate times. With the help of the Chinese Photographers Association, he journeyed across the country and took more than 8,000 color photos. The photographer handpicked 116 images, portraying the everyday life of Chinese children in various parts of the country, and compiled them into Dear Old Days, published by Seisodo in 1983.

The book was reprinted in 2019 and notched up a staggering 9.6 out of 10 on the popular review site Douban, with many readers reporting that reading the book made them smile with tears.

Responding to the popularity of his works in China, the photographer said: “Rather than saying my works are great, I think the main reason behind their popularity is that many Chinese people have a special affection for the 80s, and color photos from that time are very rare.”

Critically acclaimed for his acute artistic sensibilities and closeness with his subjects, Akiyama said: “Although they don’t understand my language, I will talk to them with a smile, teach them the Japanese children’s game, and be with them. Then take photos quickly when the children don’t notice.”

Born in 1942 to a photographer father, Akiyama studied literature at Waseda University. He worked for the Associated Press and the Asahi Shimbun Photography Department before becoming a freelance photographer.

As a photojournalist, Akiyama reported on issues such as famine in India and depopulation on remote islands. In 1974, he participated in the group exhibit New Japanese Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with Masahisa Fukase and Daido Moriyama, among others.

Armed with a 6 x 6 dual-lens Rolleiflex camera, Akiyama created a body of work that unflinchingly captures his subjects from the “perspective of a traveler” in places such as New York, Indonesia, and China.

Aside from his subjects, Chinese children in the early 1980s, China’s social environment of that period is another highlight of the upcoming exhibition, according to Three Shadows.

Through viewing works selected from the third album of the Dear Old Daysseries, the audience is offered a chance to learn about how people worked and lived, what they wore, and what they did for fun four decades ago.

The exhibit runs through Oct 6.

If you go:

10 am-6 pm, closed on Mondays. Three Shadows Photography Art Center, 155 A Caochangdi, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-6432-2663