Photography in China – a new book

A new book from Claire Roberts and from the excellent publishers Reaktion….

Photography and China is the first overview of the subject to be published in English, providing a comprehensive account of this previously neglected relationship. Spanning the period from the inception of photography until the present, the book foregrounds Chinese photographers and subjects, and draws on works in museum, archival and private collections across China, the USA, Europe and Australia. Taking a thematic approach to her historical survey, Claire Roberts brings together commercial, art and documentary photography, locating the images within the broader context of Chinese history. With a constant focus on the images, and the studios or individuals that created them, Roberts describes the long tradition of Chinese artistic culture into which photography was at first absorbed, and which it subsequently expanded. She recounts the stories of practitioners who were agents in that process of change, both from China and overseas, and examines the different purposes for which they used photography, be they commercial, political or artistic. Featuring a strong narrative and numerous striking images, many unfamiliar to a Western audience, Photography and China will appeal to all those with an interest in China, photography, Chinese art and visual culture, or twentieth-century history and society. The book will also be relevant to a general audience, as well as students, scholars, photographers, curators and collectors.

The Immobile Empire – More on Macartney

A new study of the Macrtney Mission to China from Alain Peyrefitte…

In 1793, Lord George Macartney and an enormous delegation—including diplomats, doctors, scholars, painters, musicians, soldiers, and aristocrats—entered Beijing on a mission to open China to British trade. But Macartney’s famous refusal to perform the traditional kowtow before the Chinese Emperor was just one sign that the two empires would not see eye to eye, and the trade talks failed. The inability to develop a trade relation would have enormous consequences for future relations between China and the West. Peyrefitte’s vivid narrative of this fascinating encounter is based on extraordinary source materials from each side—including the charming and candid diary of Thomas Staunton, the son of one of Macartney’s aides. An example of history at its finest, The Immobile Empire recaptures the extraordinary experience of two great empires in collision, sizing each other up for the first time.

When you Could Still Drink the Milk in Shanghai

Milk and dairy are risky options these days in Shanghai but, in the 1930s, half a century before the infant formula obsessions kicked in, Shanghai Dairy Farms seem to have done a good job. Their offices were in Hamilton House down on Kiangse Road (Jiangxi Road) but God knows where they kept the cows?

Representations of China in British Children’s Fiction, 1851-1911

A little obscure perhaps but Chen Shih-Wen’s Representation of China in British Children’s Fiction intrigued me….

Shih-Wen Chen is a post-doctoral fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World, The Australian National University. Her research interests include children’s literature, print culture, and histories of reading.

‘Shih-Wen Chen’s extraordinary research challenges the assertions made by previous scholars to construct an important and convincing new analysis of Chinese characters in British children’s fiction.’Sally Mitchell, Temple University, USA’Combining detailed historical context with close rhetorical analysis, Shih-Wen Chen brings out the subtle distinction and occluded histories that reveal the diverse and subtle ways images of China in the nineteenth century vary from the conventional reading of stereotype. Extensively researched, well argued, topical and expansive in its scope, her book provides a detailed and compelling case for the variegated lens British children’s fiction offers for viewing the complexities and nuances of Sino-British relations’.Helen Groth, University of New South Wales, Australia

Need a New Outfit? Try Josephine Gowns

Posh frocks galore for Shanghai at Josephine Gowns on the Yuen Ming Yuen Road (now Yuan Ming Yuan Road). Obviously a showroom up on the 2nd floor run by Henry Cohen in the 1930s…

Shanghai’s Old Outdoor Cinemas

Outdoor cinema has made something of a comeback in many cities around the world in recent years, but not in China to my knowledge. However, back in the thirties outdoor cinema was popular. In Shanghai there were weekend screening in Hongkew Park (now Lu Xun Park) as well as at the Hart Garden Lawn Cinema up on Hart Road (now Changde Road) close to the junction with Connaught Road (now Kanding Road). In 1934 the Hart Garden was actually showing 1932’s If I had a Million with an all-star cast. It seems like a pretty cheap date – 50 cents for the best seats. Just hope the rain stayed away….

Oddly Chung Ling Soo Pops Up on BBC1’s The One Show!

To my surprise the story of the magician Chung Ling Soo popped up on The One Show on BBC1, of all places. I’ve blogged about Chung Ling Soo, actually William Ellsworth Robinson, an American magician who worked mostly in Britain before the First World War impersonating a Chinese magician in full mandarin regalia. Most of the audience never had any idea that he wasn’t Chinese. There is little film of him – except this short clip of him welcoming back soldiers from the front to London (which I’ve blogged previously here). Famously Chung Ling Soo/Robinson died when his version of the bullet catching trick (set against a backdrop of the Boxer Rebellion!) went wrong at the Wood Green Empire music hall. By the way, there’s a great biography of Robinson called The Glorious Deception.

Anyway, if you can access BBCiPlayer before next Wednesday (5th June) you can watch the programme…

Propaganda: Power and Persuasion: An exhibition at the British Library

The British Library is currently running a good exhibition around the theme of propaganda. Obviously they have some great stuff from their collections. It runs till mid-September.  The exhibition includes some items of interest to China Rhyming readers including some interesting prints from the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 with some battlefield scenes from Mizuno Toshikata and some images of Port Arthur Bay (now Lushun). There are also some particularly striking cartoons from the Russo-Japanese War (1905) showing the Japanese giving the Tsar’s army a bloody nose. There’s also quite a bit of Cultural Revolution stuff including stamps and the revolutionary opera, The White Haired Girl, which goes back further than the CR and was first performed as a piece of propaganda in 1945. Finally, I found the examples of early posters promoting the introduction of the One Child Policy from the 1970s quite interesting and hadn’t seen many of them before.