Picturing an epic journey

"There were few photos of the Long March. I want to recreate those historical scenes," says Shen, adding that, despite years of research, he found only 15 photos.

Wu Hongliang, head of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, says many TV series and films themed on the Long March drew inspiration from Shen's pictures. The institution held a show of Shen's work featuring The Red Ribbon on the Earth in 2006.

"The hats and equipment of each soldier are different in Shen's engravings. The details are so vivid that they make the viewers believe that they are real scenes," Wu says.

Shen graduated from the engraving department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1966. He first became interested in the Long March when he saw a map showing the route of the march when he was at college, which sparked his curiosity and marked the beginning of his lifetime pursuit of the subject.

In 1975, Shen embarked on his first visit to areas along the route, spending three months traveling from the march's starting place in Jiangxi province to Shaanxi where the major units merged.