can never get over a tearful mother from Guizhou, who knelt down and kowtowed before me, simply because my donation had helped her young drop out daughter return to school.

In China, there are currently still 37 millions school agers who are barred from school because of poor family backgrounds. Among them 80% to 85% are girls. China is a big Country with a large population and extremely uneven economic and cultural development. Although in big cities educational conditions have been constantly improved on and people of talent come forth in large numbers, yet in the vast rural areas where most of the population live, the popularization of primary education is beset with difficulties.

Influenced by traditional values, especially among the ethnic groups, the drop out rate of girl students is horribly high. Just imagine years or decades from now how a crowd of ignorant and illiterate masses would rationally reconstruct and develop a country! The subject matter of my monographic photography is the status quo of women's education in China. Part of my completed works shows the present conditions of Guizhou, the most impoverished area in China, Similar cases also abound in other parts of China.

With further inquiries into this monograph, I seek to unfold in an all round way the difficulties of Chinese women's education and the great efforts the Chinese people have made for it to finally call wide attention to this issue, in 1992, some of my pictures were published in China Youth Daily (with a circulation of 1.5 million). After that, I received over a hundred letters from my readers. Many of them even remitted donations. I feel gratified that what I did has won me appreciation and support from the people.