Xiaoxiao Xu

Book excerpt: Aeronautics in the Backyard' is a catching, fairytale-like photo series about the dream of flying, freedom, and creativity. In China, in the most unexpected of places, farmers rise up to build their own aircraft from recycling scrap metal. Some of these aeronauts have worked for decades but never achieved to get airborne. Xu is driven by questions of why, of all people, Chinese farmers have the guts and skills to become aeronauts, even though they lack both education and resources. Their stories, pictures, original sketches, and technical documents are brought together in the book, unveiling the hidden world of Chinese aeronautics in full detail for the first time.