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In the early 1980s, China felt like a land emerging from a long, harsh winter, touched at last by the gentle signs of spring. This photo book captures the face of the city at a time when China's reform and opening-up had just begun—bathed in a gentle light tinged with hope. Hand-painted signboards, red public telephones, stylish young people breezing through the streets on "Erba" bicycles (the large 28-inch framed bicycles common in China at the time) and calm passersby clad in blue Mao suits—all vivid fragments of a city stirring to life. It was as if the era itself had awakened, vibrant and alive once more. The morning mist, the dust swirling on the pavement, clothes drying in the sunlight—even the distinct scents of that time seemed to rise from the images. The confident expressions of the young people carried the spirited essence of the passionate 1980s, often romanticized in literature.

After the reprint of Chinese Children (Dear Old Days) in 2019, Ryoji Akiyama began to sort through and organise his remaining negatives. From 2020 to 2023, we published the sequel Dear Old Days II, the final chapter Dear Old Days III, and a special issue Encounter/A supplement to Dear Old Days, bringing the series to a temporary close. Yet, there were still over 7,000 unpublished negatives remaining. We decided not to limit our focus solely to "Children." Instead, we chose to revisit the moments captured by photographer Ryoji Akiyama whenever he felt compelled to press the shutter.

Ryoji Akiyama vividly captured the powerful yet delicate essence of a country poised between past and future, bravely taking its first steps toward a new era. His lens frames not only the humble and sincere lives of everyday people and the unadorned beauty of urban landscapes that still carried traces of a bygone age, but also a deeper emotional resonance. These images gently touch the hearts of viewers, not only in China but around the world, softly awakening something long forgotten.