About the Author

Hong-Kong-born Liu Heung Shing's honors include Best Photographer from the Associated Press (1989 and 1991), Picture of the Year by the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri (1989) and the Overseas Press Club Award (1992). Liu has documented major international events throughout his four-decade career, and his acclaimed books include China after Mao: "Seek Truth from Facts" (1983), China, Portrait of a Country (2008) and China in Revolution: The Road to 1911 (2012).

Reviews

[A Life in a Sea of Red] is an adaptation of the Chinese phrase "alive in the bitter sea." The original phrase means to survive life's hard circumstances and for Liu Heung Shing it aptly describes the life of people under the Communist rule in the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union.--Caterina Bellinetti "Art and Object"

[A Life in a Sea of Red] features gripping images taken four decades of chaotic revolution and tumultuous change as the West's Cold War adversaries struggled to cope with change under and after the Communist rule.-- "ColdType"

[Liu Heung Shing's] candid portraits and ground-level street photography offer a distinctly human perspective.--Oscar Holland "CNN"

Liu, a Pulitzer Prize winner, used his lens to catch the poetry, drama and even humour of daily life under these regimes - and what happened when unrest inevitably boiled over.--Joyce Lau "South China Morning Post"

Liu's impressive new photo book, "A Life in a Sea of Red," is a rat-a-tat-tat I-was-there collection of the most memorable, most revealing pictures made during a 40-year career covering China and Russia at times of unprecedented upheaval.--Bill Shapiro "Los Angeles Times"

Scenes of hope, hardship and change under Communist party rule.-- "Guardian"