Edited by Alfred Weidinger, Gabriele Spindler. Text by Ulrike Matzer.

This publication compiles two photographic series by Chinese photographer Luo Yang (born 1984) exploring emerging youth culture, femininity and changing social landscape in China. Girls comprises intimate portraits of women born in the 1980s who challenge Chinese gender norms and expectations. Whether against the backdrop of Chinese megacities or in intimate settings, the young women present themselves as both confident and independent, vulnerable and fragile. In the series Youth Yang documents Generation Z’s search for individual expression between creative staging and authentic feeling, with an attention to gender fluidity and queer culture. Luo Yang paints a sensitive picture of urban Chinese youth in search of orientation and identity. Ai Weiwei described Yang as one of the “rising stars of Chinese photography.”