Maostalgia

An exclusive photo essay from China's red heartland.

Documentary photojournalist Tomas van Houtryve has spent much of the past five years photographing the few countries still under Communist Party rule. It is the sense of "counterculture, of swimming against the tide" of history, that interests him. His 2009 photo essay for FP on North Korea, "The Land of No Smiles," was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In this issue, he captures the earnest dissonance of modern-day China's reverence for Mao.