I shot this photo essay of Zhang Dali, one of China’s first graffiti artists, for VIBE magazine in Beijing in 1997, a time of a burgeoning underground-arts movement in China but also when the penalty for graffiti was corporal punishment. There is a long tradition in Chinese calligraphy of social protest. Dali would spray paint his bald head and moniker AK47 on the very prevalent condemned buildings throughout the city as a means to comment on the rapidly changing face of China. Today, Dali’s art, sculpture, and photography can be seen in MoMA, the Saatchi Gallery, and galleries throughout the world. A man watched us carefully behind a wooden plank as I photographed.