Wang Fuchun, photographer. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The book was first published in 2001. The latest edition includes 37 new photographs.

For Wang, the 1990s was a decade with rapid development and the country experienced great changes thanks to the reform and opening-up policy. It was also the period when his works became mature exhibiting aesthetic and historical value.

In one photo taken in 1995, a dog, standing on a table, stares hungrily at a young woman who's eating instant noodles in a sleeping carriage. Now that pets are transported separately from their owners when traveling by train, scenes like this can no longer be seen, says Wang.

Wang also outlines the fashions of the time through such pictures as a woman wearing a T-shirt with images of the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, which were popular after the film Titanic was screened in China, a man using a prototype mobile phone, and two people listening together to a Walkman.

"Russian author Maxim Gorky said the subject of literature was humans. I think that is also true of photography," Wang says.