Protecting nature through photography
Xi Zhinong widely recognized at home and abroad for his work with rare and endangered species
Monkeys and antelopes
After graduating from high school in 1983, Xi started working as a photography assistant with Wang Zijiang, a teacher from Yunnan University, engaging in the production of a documentary on birds.
In 1984, driven by a passion to capture birds in flight, Xi spent around 500 yuan ($68) to purchase his first camera, which amounted to nearly five months of his salary.
After joining a survey of the black-necked crane in 1990, he managed to take the country's first photos of the endangered bird wintering in Yunnan.
Between 1992 and 1994, he participated in a research project on Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in the province's Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve.
It took him three years and six expeditions into the mountains to capture his first frontal photographs of these elusive animals.
It was during this period that he learned of a logging company's plan to deforest the habitat of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, prompting him to write a letter to a State councilor. The action led to the initiation of the Green Student Camp, a grassroots environmental movement that ultimately saved the monkeys' habitat.
During the Green Student Camp held in the Baima Snow Mountains, he met his future wife Shi Lihong, a reporter from Beijing. After marrying Xi, Shi quit her job and later moved with Xi to settle in Yunnan. With two other wildlife photographers, they founded the Wild China studio in 2002. In 2022, the couple turned their home in Dali into the Wild China Museum.
One of his photos featuring the monkeys was published in National Geographic magazine in 1995, bringing the species into the international spotlight. "It was fate that led me to the monkeys in the wild," he said on a few occasions. "Without that encounter, I wouldn't have continued my journey as a wildlife photographer."
Working as an investigative reporter with China Central Television in 1997, he ventured into the remote expanse of Hoh Xil on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, shedding light on the peril faced by Tibetan antelopes due to rampant poaching. At one single site, he saw hundreds of dead Tibetan antelopes.
"I could only take photos, but I felt fortunate to be there," he said. "It allowed me to unveil the entirety of wild nature to the public, a realm encompassing both breathtaking beauty and harsh, stark realities."
Because of his visual works, more people have learned about Hoh Xil and the neighboring Sanjiangyuan area, a refuge for many distinctive wildlife species. Later, a national nature reserve put Hoh Xil under protection, and Sanjiangyuan has become the country's largest national park. The number of Tibetan antelopes in the country has increased from 60,000 in the 1990s to 400,000 at present.
