Eternal China?

"When this photo was taken in 1957 rural China was just about to spiral dow n into nightmare," writes a historian. "However much he may have known abou t this background, Marc Riboud chose in this photograph to render China in the terms that had been hallowed for millennia: a peaceful world of simple farmers working their land in the gentle shadow of the mountains, the quiet waters of their pond catching the reflection of the mountain peaks."