Category Archives: Photograph of the day

Smiles and coracles, 1938

This snapshot of (I think) some boatside begging, was taken or acquired by Edgar Taylor, who served in the British Royal Navy, and was possibly taken at Hankow (Hankou, Wuhan) on the Yangzi. We do not know much about the … Continue reading

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Graduation!

The University of Bristol this week held its first graduation cemeremony in China. Two hundred students attended the ceremony in Beijing, and it is planned that this event will be held every two years. To mark the occasion here is … Continue reading

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Last years of the comprador/e

The latest Wikileaks release has some interesting China material. My eye was caught by a practical note dated 24 March 1973 from the US Consulate in Hong Kong to the State Department, forwarding practical information about “administrative and other procedures … Continue reading

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Mid-day meal at a street food kitchen, Peking, 1915-1920

The Historical Photographs of China project was recently kindly given a copy of ‘The Pageant of Peking’.  Published in Shanghai in 1920 and bound in exquisite gold blocked turquoise silk, this coffee (or tea) table book is introduced by Putnam … Continue reading

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Patience and trust

Sometimes a genre photograph holds a surprise, or a redeeming punctum, as elucidated by Roland Barthes.  In this photograph (Ru02-20), taken on a hot dusty street, probably in Peking (Beijing), c.1905, a dog takes advantage of the shade of the … Continue reading

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Laundry

These two photographs from unrelated collections show women washing clothes on rocks.  Whilst doing their own work together in a communal way, one imagines the women having neighbourly conversations, perhaps even singing. The images have several similarities and may have … Continue reading

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Seasonal greetings!

Compliments of the season to all friends of ‘Visualising China‘.  

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Christmas Quiz

This intriguing montage photograph (DH-s019) of forty sketched portraits of foreigners and one photographic portrait, is labelled “PEKING CHRISTMAS 1877”. Their faces can be studied more closely at DH-s020, DH-s021 and DH-s022. Most of the photographs in the Henderson collection … Continue reading

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Luoyang Bridge, Quanzhou, showing oyster beds

This magnificent and famous stone beam bridge (Wan’an Bridge) in Qhanzhou, Fujian province was first built in the eleventh century; it has been restored many times since then and still stands.   The elegant granite ship-shaped piers cut the rapid current … Continue reading

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Back to the past

Prior to 1949, and again more recently, foreign tourists avidly visited the marvellous sights in China.  The tourist trail would include the Ming Tombs, just forty kilometres north of Peking (Beijing), here being explored in the 1920s, by donkey in … Continue reading

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