Contemporary photos of aspirational Chinese artists are on show at the China Cultural Center in Brussels. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China's one-child policy initiated in the 1970s to reduce population growth－which was relaxed this year－is evident in Li Nan's Midwives, while Mu Ge's Going Home: Terminal Passengers, depicting young workers waiting for boats to take them to the Chengdu software factories, evokes China's economic growth.

Other photographers featured include Zhang Wei who has remade Leonardo da Vinci's paintings using the latest techniques, while Lu Yao's High Pavilion in Cool Summer looks like a typical Hokusai print－until you notice that Lu has superimposed photographed items over the ink drawings using digital technology.

The exhibition also remembers Chinese traditions, including nostalgic landscapes and village scenes. Liu explains he took a photo of a couple sitting in Shanghai People's Park, a black-and-white still reminiscent of Robert Capa or Henri Cartier-Bresson, when (in 1978) "people queued to sit on park benches to get some privacy".

The exhibition can be seen at the Chinese Cultural Center in Brussels until Sept 10, Monday to Friday.

The center's next exhibition, Water+ Ink: Tradition in Contemporary Art, runs from Sept 1 to 24.