Catherine and Olivier de B. were brother and sister and two amateurs photographers who stayed three weeks in China between July and August 1971. They compiled an archive of over a hundred still images as well as moving images.
Upon their arrival in Hong Kong, they purchased a camera Canon Canonet F-1, QL17/19, as well as a Kodachrome II Movie Film Type A in Super 8 movie cartridge. Catherine and Olivier de B. were able to enter China thanks to the official invitation of their cousin (Jean-Paul Réau), who was the First Secretary in Beijing. Catherine and Olivier de B.’s mother and sister visited the country afterwards. Catherine and Olivier de B. departed from Toulouse on 23 July 1971. Their itinerary includes Paris, India, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, they took a third-class train to Beijing where they stayed most of the time, and visited Tianjin one day. On their way back, they took the Trans-Siberian Railway via Moscow, managed to travel from East to West Berlin, and went back to Toulouse.
Except from an interview published in 1971 as a series of articles in the local newspaper “La Croix du Midi”, photographs were neither diffused nor shown.
