Editor’s Note
A version of this book was published by the Publishing House of Minority Nationalities in China in 2017. This is the original, uncensored version. Lin Xin started making his documentary Sanlidong in 2005, and most of the coal miners in Tongchuan who were interviewed by Lin have now passed away. However, their lives and images have been captured in this book and the film, which offer a profound historical testimony of the development of western China since the 1950s. Lin has so far made ten documentaries and edited the related oral history materials, striving to use both images and texts to record the local history and reality of Tongchuan, a city in Sha’anxi Province.
Lin Xin was born in 1960. He formerly held several painting and calligraphy solo exhibitions in various locations including the Art Museum of China in Beijing, and in Xi’an. His documentary films include Chen Lu, Sanlidong, Classmates, Gas, Preachers, Koudelka, Chen Jiayong, Riverbed and Single Women. Lin Xin has had painting catalogues published, a collection of poems and a monograph, Sanli dong:A Visual History of Migrant Miners from Shanghai.
