Beijing photo exhibit honors volunteer American fighter pilots

A Beijing photo exhibition honors a historical bright spot in Chinese-American relations. Known as the Flying Tigers, the volunteer pilots fought against the Japanese alongside their Chinese counterparts during World War II, but as ideological differences widened, the alliance faded from view.

Collector Zou Dehuai hopes his wartime photographs, showing at the Beijing American Center, will revive interest in a period of Sino-US cooperation that has accrued symbolic weight amid frosty relations between the superpowers. “Both China and the US were once allies, forgotten by history, and it should not be forgotten,” Zou told the South China Morning Post. “This friendship, of fighting shoulder to shoulder, should be remembered forever.”