RongRong, who was born in 1968, documented the artistic activities of the Beijing East Village collective, a group of young artists of which he was a member. He recorded their everyday life before the Beijing neighborhood was forcibly evacuated in 1995. He considers his images to be a form of aesthetic resistance against the violent intrusion of state power.

Yang Fudong, who was born in 1971, is one of China's most important contemporary artists and one of the pioneers of Chinese video art. His works are exhibited in the world's most renowned museums. In his photographs, he stages the contrasts between the current social conditions in China and classical cultural motifs.

The black-and-white series "Some Days" (created between 1999 and 2009) by Wang Ningde, who was born in 1972, shows scenes as if from a dramatic silent movie: He photographed all of his protagonists with their eyes closed. As a result, the photos evoke surreal intermediate worlds of happiness or resignation, dreams or nightmares, meditation or escape.

Zhang Xiao, born in 1981, captures her personal memories as if historical testimonies of the past itself. In faded, black-and- white and sepia tones, with scratches and scribbles, they look like objects that have been discovered somewhere. "Mother and Neighbours" is part of a series of image fragments, based on Polaroids and arranged in a collage, that reflects on the themes of childhood and home.

The young photographer Liang Xiu, who was born in 1994, focuses on the fringes of society — far away from the big cities. She poses questions about the roles of women and sexual orientation. She addresses economic inequality and depicts in her work non-conformist, sensitive individuals in a coquettish, ironic and critical manner.

The photographs by Gao Mingxi, who was born in 1992, are artistic compositions that look like drawings or paintings; they are more a product of the artist's imagination than an observed reality. Their contents and motifs are borrowed from myths, fairy tales and literary traditions of various religions. In "Cain & Abel," his interest lies in the analysis of human nature.

Ren Hang (1987-2017) implemented his color photographs to depict the emotional life of his generation. They are about young women and men, about friendship, love, fear and loneliness. By staging their nakedness and depicting gender roles, he touched on the taboos of traditional Chinese society.

Ren Hang committed suicide when he was 29 years old. By then, he had already become one of China's most extraordinary young photographers, with solo exhibitions all over the world: in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam. His photographs show naked bodies arranged either individually or in groups, lying together in strange poses, indoors and outdoors.

In large color photographs, Chen Wei, born in 1980, seeks to express the thoughts and feelings of his generation. Carefully staged over a long period of time and surreal in lighting and color, he creates fictional worlds, night-time places of escape and longing. He invents spaces and stages them in a film studio, asking his actors to pose and exaggerate their gestures as if they were intoxicated.

Chen Wei evokes a mood of melancholy and isolation. These at times depressing situations correspond to the experiences of young people, says the artist. The empty space of "Dance Hall" appears like a stage set, like an abandoned scene that creates an eerie atmosphere in the absence of people.