“China is geen verre grootmacht meer. De keuzes die daar vandaag worden gemaakt, bepalen steeds vaker hoe wij morgen leven. Van kunstmatige intelligentie en biotechnologie tot energie, handel, defensie en geopolitiek: wie wil begrijpen hoe de wereld verandert, kan niet om China heen.”
Man collecting sea urchins on Thitu island. Philippine-occupied territory, South China Sea, 2024
Kung Fu training. Shaolin, China, 2017
Medicine man of Miao ethnic minority. Yunnan, China, 2015
Pupils on Red Army School. China, 2015
Shenzhen, China, 2017
Lanzhou New Area. Gansu, China, 2016
Open pit coal mine. Inner Mongolia, China, 2017
Farmer in front of real estate project threatening to swallow his land. Wuhan, China, 2015
Chongqing, China, 2015
Rich second generation at nightclub. Shanghai, China, 2015
Jin Xing imitator. Beijing, China, 2017
Portrait of Mao Zedong. Yunnan, China, 2015
Taoist hermit. Zhongnan Shan, China, 2017
Lanzhou New Area. Gansu, China, 2016
Children playing in rice terraces. Yuanyang, China, 2005
Yangtze river. China, 2015
Ship elevator at the Three Gorges Dam. China, 2015
Wuhan, China, 2015
Cormorant fisher. Hong Hu, China, 2015
Yangtze finless porpoise in research centre. China, 2015
Three generations and the Three Gorges Dam. China, 2015
Pupil training at acrobatics school. China, 2015
Boy at internment camp crying while calling his father. China, 2019
Married couple in Dwarf Empire amusement park. China, 2015
Dwarf Empire amusement park. China, 2015
Child sleeping on fishing boat. Hong Hu, China, 2015
Xiao Sun at the Bund. Shanghai, China, 2015
Chinese New Year celebrations. Puding, China, 2006
Young lady after cosmetic surgery. Shanghai, China, 2015
Man looking for partner holding advertisement about himself. Kunming, China, 2015
Couple arguing about the terms of their separation. The trial is held at their front door. Chongqing, China, 2019
Man drinking tea under the watchful eyes of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping. China, 2015
Yi ethnic minority students at school. Liangshan, China, 2019
Farmer in his rice terraces. Yunnan, China, 2005
Water buffalo that died during bullfight at ethnic Miao festivities. Guizhou, China, 2004
Ethnic Yao man offering me a cigarette. Yunnan, China, 2005
Basha Miao boy with his dog. Guizhou, China, 2004
Yao girl. Yunnan, China, 2005
Tibetan boy bringing yaks back to camp. Sichuan, China, 2006
Wounded horse kicking up dust. Inner Mongolia, China, 2017
Live streamer Lucky. Beijing, China, 2017
Terminally ill man at home. Hunan, China, 2017
Family at funeral. Shaanxi, China, 2017
Man holding a portrait of his deceased and unmarried uncle, for whom a ghost marriage was arranged. He was buried with an inflatable doll. Shaanxi, China, 2017
Effigies for a funeral. Shaanxi, China, 2017
Burial ceremony where paper money, cars, iPhones and houses are burned to comfort the spirit of the deceased. Shaanxi, China, 2017
Man building tower to reach heaven and his deceased family. Shandong, China, 2016
Hu Guangzhou looking proudly at his self-built tower. Shandong, China, 2016
Hu Guangzhou climbing his tower. He believes the tower will bring him to heaven and reunite him with his deceased family. Shandong, China, 2016
Hu Guangzhou holding improvised iron nails for his tower. Shandong, China, 2016
Hu Guangzhou looking in the mirror. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia but ran away from the psychiatric treatment center. Shandong, China, 2016
Notebook of Hu Guangzhou with drawings of his tower. Shandong, China, 2016
Hu Guangzhou cooking. Months later fire broke out and destroyed his home. He was then forcefully taken to live at the psychiatric hospital again. Shandong, China, 2016
Chinese women taking selfies with Kenyan children at a charity event. Nairobi, Kenya, 2019
Railway employee standing on the platform at Vientiane railway station on the newly constructed Laos-China railway. Laos, 2022
Youth playing in their new village after they had to relocate for the Laos-China railway. Laos, 2022
Monument erected to symbolize the prosperity China's New Silk Road will bring to the country. Nurkent, Kazakhstan, 2022
Filipino fisherman at Scarborough Shoal. Chinese-occupied territory, South China Sea, 2024
Chinese dissidents carrying statue of Goddess of Democracy. California, USA, 2020
Ethnic Mongolian refugee from China with his truck. He specifically chose the number plate 8964 to commemorate the Tiananmen Square incident on June 4, 1989. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2023
Ethnic Kazakh refugee holding the portraits of her three missing sons. She hasn't heard of them since seven years, when they were arrested and put in concentration camps in China's western province Xinjiang. Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2022
Chinese gold miner with his gun in the Amazon. Brownsberg, Suriname, 2023
Chinese copper miners. Bor, Serbia, 2020
Caretaker of the cemetery praying for the souls of Chinese men who perished constructing the Karakoram Highway. Danyor, Pakistan, 2022
Pakistani soldier at checkpoint guarding the city of Gwadar, an important geostrategic location on China's New Silk Road. Gwadar, Pakistan, 2022
Lady in banquet hall. Huaxi, China, 2024
Man taking photo of Mao Zedong. Nanjie, China, 2024
Chinese youth posing under a portrait of Joseph Stalin. Nanjie, China, 2024
Man in restaurant in front of a map of the South China Sea and the nine-dash line. Tanmen, China, 2024
Tibetan woman removing snow so her yaks can eat grass. Sichuan, China, 2005
Long-horn Miao. Guizhou, China, 2005
Man carrying bamboo. Guizhou, China, 2004
Miao family. Guizhou, China, 2004
Miao family around fireplace. Guizhou, China, 2004
Yi farmer. Liangshan, China, 2019
Yi shaman drinking during ritual. Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, China, 2019
Yi woman watches over her pigs. Liangshan, China, 2019
Rice terraces in the mist. Yuanyang, China 2005
Huangshan / Yellow Mountain. China, 2010
Karenni Army soldier in the jungle. Myanmar, 2023
Captured government soldiers tied to a tree. Loikaw, Myanmar, 2023
Young Urban Revolutionary Front fighter in the trenches reacts to sniper fire from enemy positions 60 meters away. Moebye, Myanmar 2025
Nurses in a bomb shelter scream in fear during a government fighter jet attack. Demoso, Myanmar, 2023
Bodies of government soldiers. Loikaw, Myanmar, 2023
Karenni fighters marching toward the front. Myanmar, 2023
Karenni Army fighter marching toward the front. Myanmar, 2023
Body of government soldier. Loikaw, Myanmar, 2023
Young family mourning a Karenni fighter killed by a sniper of the military junta. Demoso, Myanmar, 2023
Karenni refugees crossing the jungle border into Thailand at night. Myanmar, 2023
A mother and her four-year-old daughter rest in exhaustion during their escape through the jungle into Thailand, following the destruction of their village by regime troops. Myanmar, 2023
Fighter returning from a drone mission. Myanmar, 2023
Karenni resistance fighter who stepped on a landmine while storming a junta position. Demoso, Myanmar, 2023
Karenni sniper cleaning his gun. Loikaw, Myanmar, 2023
Ethnic Kayan festivities. Demoso, Myanmar, 2025
Ethnic Kayan festivities. Demoso, Myanmar, 2025
Burmese New Year celebrations. Demoso, Myanmar, 2025
Burmese New Year celebrations. Demoso, Myanmar, 2025
Wounded PDF fighter celebrating Burmese New Year with fellow soldiers. Demoso, Myanmar, 2025
KNDF recruits celebrating Burmese New Year. Demoso, Myanmar, 2025
KNDF soldiers at their camp. Myanmar 2025
KNPP fighters along the Salween River. Myanmar, 2025
KNDF soldiers at their training grounds. Myanmar 2025
Newly trained KNDF soldiers marching during their graduation ceremony. Myanmar 2025
KNPLF fighter standing guard at hidden camp in the jungle. Myanmar, 2025
Church destroyed in fighting. Moebye, Myanmar, 2025
Resistance fighters sheltering for incoming artillery fire. Moebye, Myanmar, 2025
Wounded by a landmine, a KNDF fighter lies in agony awaiting amputation. Myanmar, 2025
Young fighter injured in airstrike. Myanmar, 2025
Young soldier tends to his commander after he was wounded in an airstrike. Myanmar, 2025
A KNPDP fighter keeps watch during the wake of his fallen comrade. Myanmar, 2025
Fallen soldier. Myanmar, 2025
Refugees find solace during Easter Mass at church. Myanmar, 2025
Refugees find solace during Easter Mass at church. Myanmar, 2025
Ethnic Kayan festivities. Demoso, Myanmar, 2025
A mother bids farewell to her son. The young soldier was killed by a landmine. Myanmar, 2025
Child salutes during the wake of a fallen soldier. Myanmar, 2025
A fighter of the Urban Revolutionary Front with the names of fallen comrades tattooed on his chest. Moebye, Myanmar, 2025
A KNDF fighter prepares a drone for deployment. Myanmar, 2025
A prisoner who executed a man he wrongly believed to be spying for regime troops. Myanmar, 2025
KNPLF fighter. Myanmar, 2025
KNPLF fighter. Myanmar, 2025
Newly trained recruits of the KNDF resistance forces. Myanmar, 2025
KNDF resistance forces sing 'Fight for Freedom!' after completing training. Myanmar, 2025
Child playing with toy gun. Myanmar, 2025
A young girl covered in coal stains sits on a hillside recently cleared through slash-and-burn. Myanmar, 2025
Woman crying at the grave of her son who was beaten to death by fellow conscripts while in the military. Tajikistan, 2022
Girl holding baby. Ghor, Afghanistan, 2008
Aftermath of Taleban suicide bombing of Indian Embassy. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2008
Girl wounded in NATO bombing of wedding. Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 2008
Aftermath of Taleban attack. Afghanistan, 2008
The Russian cultural center was destroyed during the civil war and houses hundreds of drug addicts. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2008
Drug addict. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2008
The royal Darul Aman Palace was destroyed during the civil war. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2008
Afghan police fleeing after undetonated explosives on the body of a dead Taleban fighter are found. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2009
Blood of Taleban fighter killed in fighting. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2009
American soldiers on patrol. Kunar, Afghanistan, 2009
American soldiers on patrol. Kunar, Afghanistan, 2009
Girl holding sheeplegs. Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan, 2009
Kyrgyz boy with his favorite stick in Bozai Gumbaz, former Soviet outpost. Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan, 2009
Wakhi mother and her child milking sheep in the Pamir mountains. Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan, 2009
Kyrgyz girl herding yak in Bozai Gumbaz, former Soviet outpost. Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan, 2009
Girl in field of barley. Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan, 2009
Girls looking for cattle. Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan, 2009
Daily life in the Wakhan corridor. Afghanistan, 2009
Wakhi nomads in the Wakhan corridor. Afghanistan, 2009
Kyrgyz man smoking opium in his yurt. Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan, 2009
Old man with broken glasses. Yakawlang, Afghanistan, 2008
Man in trance during Sufi ritual. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2009
Hope. Kabul, 2008
Child in refugee camp. Kabul, 2008
Men smoking heroin. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2008
Heroin addict. Kabul, Afghanistan, 2008
Pelican on the bazaar. Kabul, 2011
The buddha's of Bamyan destroyed by the Taleban. Afghanistan, 2008
Planet earth. Afghanistan, 2008
Woman begging in snow. Herat, Afghanistan, 2008
Iranian-Afghan border, 2008
Siberia, Russia, 2010
Moscow, Russia, 2010
Siberian winter. Near Chita, Russia, 2010
Indian Ocean, 2025
Indian Ocean, 2025
Indian Ocean, 2025
Indian Ocean, 2025
Indian Ocean, 2025
Indian Ocean, 2025
Indian Ocean, 2025
“De afgelopen decennia zag ik China ingrijpend veranderen. Terwijl het land uitgroeide tot een technologische, economische en geopolitieke grootmacht, reisde ik de groeiende invloed van China achterna: van Taiwan en Myanmar tot Centraal-Azië, het Midden-Oosten, Afrika en de Indo-Pacific.
Achter die ontwikkeling ontdekte ik een samenleving met een eigen geschiedenis, cultuur en wereldbeeld. Juist die vormen de sleutel om de keuzes van China te begrijpen.”
Lezingen
Ruben is een veelgevraagd spreker en deskundige voor bedrijven, overheden, onderwijs- en zorginstellingen en maatschappelijke organisaties die willen begrijpen hoe China de wereld verandert en wat dat betekent voor hun eigen toekomst. Of het nu gaat om een inspirerende keynote op een congres, een bijeenkomst voor bestuurders of een interactieve sessie binnen een organisatie met ruimte voor verdieping en gesprek: zijn bijdrage nodigt uit om met andere ogen naar de wereld van vandaag en morgen te kijken.