Children wearing cardboard lion dance masks walk along a street in Beijing on January 13, 2023. China has announced its first overall population decline in recent years amid an aging society and plunging birthrate. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Bouwe Brouwer: Postcards from Fryslân (series finalist). “People from Fryslân are looked upon by the rest of the Netherlands as stubborn people. Going back as far as the Spanish occupation, they have a history of resisting authority. Postcards from Fryslân is still an ongoing project – hopefully a lifelong one. When it started, it represented only a collection of places that seemed interesting. Currently, the hope is to cover most of the province, as you never know in advance where the best narratives are. But still, it is all candid, unposed and in the public realm”. (Photo by Bouwe Brouwer/Street Photographers Awards 2021)

A staff member of Yutian County poses for a video on marigold industry at an agricultural industrial park in Yutian County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, September 20, 2020. As one of the five counties in Hotan Prefecture that have not been lifted out of poverty, Yutian County is accelerating its steps to shake off poverty by planting marigold. (Photo by Chine Nouvelle/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Primary school students attend an emergency evacuation drill on China's national day for disaster prevention and relief on May 12, 2022 in Hefei, Anhui Province of China. China's national day for disaster prevention and relief falls on May 12 every year. (Photo by Ge Qingzhao/VCG via Getty Images)

A municipal worker who helped with traffic control near a school is presented with flowers at the end of the national college entrance examinations, known as the gaokao, in Beijing, Friday, June 10, 2022. More than 11 million high school students throughout China took the annual college entrance exams which started on Tuesday after the country has just overcome severe COVID-19 outbreaks in Shanghai and Beijing, according to state media. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A 16-meter-high snowman is nearly completed by the Songhua River in Harbin City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on December 7, 2022. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Girls from the Miao ethnic group dress up in ethnic costumes to celebrate the traditional Lusheng Festival on December 12, 2022 in Congjiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province of China. (Photo by Mo Xiaoshu/VCG via Getty Images)

A visitor poses for pictures at the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China on January 5, 2025. (Photo by Xiaoyu Yin/Reuters)