Reproduction Shanghai Toys

A few products, not particularly old, from the Shanghai Toys company – classic tin toys made for the adult market.

Shanghai Silversmiths – Woshing

I’ve posted previously on various Shanghai silvermsiths, a big business in Shanghai pre-1949 now totally gone. Woshing (or Wo Shing) mainly targeted the export and local Shanghailander market as well as mostly being originaly Cantonese silversmiths who moved north to Shanghai. I’ve noted manufacturers such as Luen Wo, Zeewo and Tuck Chang. Today a snuff box with foliate decoration from the Shanghai silversmiths Woshing….

Master Kung was always followed by his youthful though grey haired disciple Yen Yuan….

An illustration from Carl Crow’s Master Kung: The Story of Confucius (1937), ‘Master Kung was always followed by his youthful though grey haired disciple Yen Yuan.’

Nobukazu Yosai’s images of the First Sino-Japanese War

A triptych by Japanese artist Nobukazu Yosai (1872-1944) entitled ‘Attacking Beijing’ from 1894 and the First Sino-Japanese War. Published in Japan by Hasegawa Tsunejiro.

A quick bio of Nobuzaku: He worked in a variety of genres from pictures of beautiful women (bijinga) to famous views of modernizing Tokyo (kaika-e), including depictions of domestic industrial exhibitions, depictions of the emperor and empress, and war and rebellion prints (senso-e).

A Few Images from Qi Baishi’s collected woodblock prints, 1952

Some images from Qi Baishi (1864-1957), a concertina book of woodblock prints of a collection of paintings by Qi Baishi, published in Beijing, May 1952…

Chinese school “Macau Harbour” gouache

I saw this pop up at auction recently with very little information. So no date, no artist or anything i’m afraid. I suspect the painting was done by an artist unfamiliar with Macao and based on the many nineteenth century images of the harbour by everyone from Chinnery to the Chinese artists of the Anglo-Chinese School, Tingqua etc who specialized in gouache. What I find interesting about it is that it shows (in highly heightened, basically Alpine or reminiscent of Japanese mountain scene, form) the hills of Lapa Island that have since gone. For anyone interested I wrote about these for the South China Morning Post weekend magazine a few months ago (click here).

Cultures Colliding: American Missionaries, Chinese Resistance, and the Rise of Modern Institutions in China

John R Haddad’s Cultures Colliding from Temple University Press…

As incredible as it may seem, the American missionaries who journeyed to China in 1860 planning solely to spread the Gospel ultimately reinvented their entire enterprise. By 1900, they were modernizing China with schools, colleges, hospitals, museums, and even YMCA chapters. In Cultures Colliding, John R. Haddad nimbly recounts this transformative institution-building-how and why it happened-and its consequences.

When missionaries first traveled to rural towns atop mules, they confronted populations with entrenched systems of belief that embraced Confucius and rejected Christ. Conflict ensued as these Chinese viewed missionaries as unwanted disruptors. So how did this failing movement eventually change minds and win hearts? Many missionaries chose to innovate. They built hospitals and established educational institutions offering science and math. A second wave of missionaries opened YMCA chapters, coached sports, and taught college. Crucially, missionaries also started listening to Chinese citizens, who exerted surprising influence over the preaching, teaching, and caregiving, eventually running some organizations themselves. They embraced new American ideals while remaining thoroughly Chinese.

In Cultures Colliding, Haddad recounts the unexpected origins and rapid rise of American institutions in China by telling the stories of the Americans who established these institutions and the Chinese who changed them from within. Today, the impact of this untold history continues to resonate in China.

The Chinese “Junk” Dollar, 1934

China, “Junk” Dollar, Year 23 (1934). Shanghai Mint. There were a variety of “Junk” dollars with other sides including Sun Yat-sen (below) but also Yuan Shih-kai. There is also a variation the ‘birds and junk’ dollars with a pattern of several flying birds above the junk.