The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 20, 2025
Xianjiang Girl Working in a Textile Factory, Hetian, Xianjiang Province
1996
(Chinese, b. 1969)
Paper: 45.7 x 45.7 cm (18 x 18 in.); Matted: 71.1 x 66 cm (28 x 26 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2012.105
Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Gallery © Liu Zheng
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
Xinjiang Girl Working in a Textile Factory is very close in composition and subject matter to Lewis Hine's images of girls working in cotton factories in the American South around 1900 (see 1991.294).Description
From 1991 to 1997, Zheng Liu worked for a newspaper, creating images that were supposedly documentary but instead presented a fictional, idealized view of life in China. The burgeoning individual prosperity and increasing openness to the West, meanwhile, was contributing to the rise of the photographer-artist in China, whose work fulfilled personal expressive needs rather than governmental ends. In 1994, Zheng took on this new role as he began The Chinese, a seven-year independent project to chronicle Chinese society. Lewis Hine's photographs had a narrower purpose: raising awareness of the evils of child labor.- Artist; Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg; Cleveland Museum of Art
- Refocusing Photography: China at the Millenium. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 8-November 16, 2025).
- {{cite web|title=Xianjiang Girl Working in a Textile Factory, Hetian, Xianjiang Province|url=false|author=Liu Zheng|year=1996|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.105