This photo depicts a student’s family—her mother, aunts, and grandmother—enjoying a summer retreat in a period when free time and money were hard to come by. Supported by the grandfather selling fruit and the grandmother working as a seamstress, the family cherished this ice cream treat. This small luxury reflected the early years of Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening Up, which began offering working-class families new economic opportunities.

1980-2000

Reform and Opening-Up in China

German Schools Abroad Society