Princess Esther Tissot Bigo, a photographer from Benin, is well known in the French speaking countries of Africa. Her photographic skills allowed her to take part in a Shanghai photo exhibition in May 2010, and in September the same year in the Jinan Biennial, where she was the only representative of Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, she shares her impressions on China with ChinAfrica.

You came to China for the first time in 2010, but when did you start to be interested in this country? 

The story of my first exhibition in China is due to the sensibility of a Chinese woman named Sun Yacong, who, during her stay in Benin, noticed me in an exhibition of impressionist photos at the Chinese Cultural Center (CCC) of Cotonou in 2008. Encouraged by the former director of the CCC Liu Hongge, and the former Chinese Ambassador in Benin, Geng Wenbing,I traveled to China in 2010, and it was love at first sight. It was my first trip to Asia.

When the former director and the former ambassador left Benin, I thought it would be the end of my exhibitions at the CCC, but the new authorities, the CCC's Director Bai Guangming, and Ambassador Tao Weiguang showed their determination to promote me. In September 2011, they helped organize a new exhibition of my photos of Jinan, Beijing and Shanghai. Cultural exchanges across frontiers and continents certainly assist the diplomacy between nations and represent a universal bridge.

As a woman and a photographer, what is your impression of China?

The organizers of the 10th Shanghai International Salon of Photographic Art, part of the Shanghai World Expo 2010, as well as the organizers of the Jinan Biennial have largely encouraged me, but I was also greatly encouraged by the public and the other photographers wherever I went: at the airport, in the subway, on busses and taxis, at the market, in Buddhist temples, in amusement parks. People would always want to be photographed with me.

On the other hand, the Buddhist temples with their high surrounding walls dazzled me, and I realized that Buddhists go to temples without fear of any prejudice. At the hotel where I was for two days in Shanghai, a five-year-old girl covered me with kisses and flowers every morning. What a warm welcome!

Through your photographic work, we have an image of your vision of the Chinese culture. What do you think about Chinese culture?

I noticed that the Chinese enjoy an ancestral ethnic culture such as culinary arts, clothing, architecture (the imperial palaces), dances, languages, sports, agricultural work, etc. Moreover, they speak only one official language, and they are free to worship the God they want. And they have the dragon as their communal identity. Such harmony in unity summarizes the strength of contemporary China, and it inspired me to immortalize all what I have seen through the lens of my camera. China is demanding, and concerned about quality, and it likes to surprise. It has refused to sleep, which has surprised the world.

Why are you so particularly interested in the Chinese dragon?

The dragon is a family story. In the Bigo residence in Abomey is a god called "snake-mother of twins", which is the god of my grand-grandfather. According to this oral legend, it is this double-snake that allowed Prince Bigo to succeed in all that he left to his descendants for three centuries. These male and female descendants organize rituals every year in honor of this god.Then, in China I had a proof that the snake feared by man is love, wealth and prosperity. Although Benin is a very small country compared with large China, I feel the traditional roots of my Benin culture resonate with what I find in China.