Timeline

He set up China’s first commercial online photo bank. and embarked on the R & D of network security trading communications technology, which was named after the BOA e-commerce theory founded by Zhang Yanjun. The productization (BOA Security System) was achieved in 1999, and thus China’s first security e-commerce platform was set up.

Yanjun Zhang shot portraits for 109 famous old generals of the Red Army in China, edited and published the large photo collection “Veterans of the Long March”, and held a China-Photographic Art Exhibition of the Portraits of Old Red Army Soldiers in the Long March in Beijing and Shenzhen.

He shifted his focus from single personal portrait to story descrip- tion with photographic pictures and dynamic images, so as to study the social function of the images.

Yanjun Zhang moved to Brazil and designed the video project titled Charm of Culture. He also founded the bilingual Chinese-Portuguese magazine RevistaRECURSO aimed to introduce Chinese and Brazilian cultural resources, and began to produce the emotional photographic work Brazil-Poem of Love. For the first time, this film explored Brazilian local culture from the perspective of immigrants, drawing attention to the inheritance of racial culture and its social value.

Yanjun Zhang began trying to record videos in pictures, putting forward the idea of a “photographic movie” and “emotional recording”. He entered the rainforest in South America, exploring and photographing the living environment and real conditions of indigenous Indians; in the same year, he went into the slums in Sao Paulo to record the living conditions there.

He shot the documentary China-Brazil Carnival. This was the first time that a foreigner was permitted to independently record Brazil’s Carnival in its entirety. This Brazilian Carnival, with Chinese cultural elements, was planned by Linjie Xiao, the Art Director of RevistaRECURSO. Its implementation was so effective that it caused a Chinese cultural storm in Brazil and South America. In the same year, he shot the cul- tural film Brazil’s Football Club, which follows the base line of introducing operational methods of 24 Brazilian league-A professional football clubs and the unique Brazilian fan culture, revealing in depth the secrets of Brazil as the Football Kingdom.

He jointly masterminded and launched Brazil-China Press Award in cooperation with the Brazil-China Commission for Economic, Cultural and Trade Promotion. In July, he jointly founded the Chinese Culture Center together with Brazil’s FAAP (Funda- ção Armando Alvares Penteado) in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

He shot Privileged Land of Mystery in the mountainous regions of southwestern China, which is the first cultural film introducing Chinese national cultural heritage. Its exhibition and performance in Brazil drew Brazilians’ attention to the transmission of Chinese culture.

He went onto the Atlantic with the fishing boat, recording the ancient fishing methods of Indians. In the same year, he camped on the beach of the Atlantic for a long time, studying the integration and change of the immigrant culture.

He led the Brazil-China Folk Culture Exchange Delegation on a visit to China. The delegation was composed of members from the Ministry of Culture of Brazil, the Trade Union of Film and Television, Carnival Samba School, reporters of TV stations, and photographers. During the visit, he held an exhibition of Amazon Ecological Pictures in Nanning and Liuzhou, respectively. Thus, Charm of Culture was expanded from a photographic plan to Chinese-Brazilian Culture Transmission Plan.

Yanjun Zhang went across the world’s last wetland –Pantanal to look for the descendants of the old gold prospectors, who have become a new ethnic group in Brazil, namely Pantaleiro. With respect for their ancestors and pride in the family history, they live and propagate in a paradise isolated by the wilderness.

Yanjun Zhang started to shoot Root in China. During the period, Communication University of China and Beijing Film Academy invites Zhang Yanjun and Xiao Linjie to conduct academic exchanges on the documentary film Charm of Culture in the School of Graduate, and the “Film Culture Exhibition on Charm of Culture” was held in Xi’an Museum.