The latest book to use one of our photographs on its cover has just arrived in the post.
Felix Boecking teaches modern Chinese economic and political history at the University of Edinburgh, and his volume, which grew out of the ‘History of the Chinese Maritime Customs’ project — as did Historical Photographs of China — is out now from Harvard University Press.
The very striking cover is derived from a photograph of the harbour at Chefoo — Yantai — possibly taken in the winter of 1936-37.
It came with a modest set of photographs from Dr Bill Sinton, whose parents worked for the China Inland Mission in Sichuan, where he was born in 1924. Sinton boarded at the Chefoo School in 1930s, and the photograph is one of a number of ships in the harbour, all of which show them caught fast in ice.
Barges and steamships in frozen harbour, Chefoo, Sinton Collection Si-s08 © 2010 Dr William Sinton
The calligraphy on the cover is by Chiang Kai-shek. So, by way of cross-linkages, this provides an opportunity to showcase another photograph from the wonderful Fu Bingchang collection of Chiang, and his calligraphy, carved in stone on Jinmen Island. The calligraphy itself dates from 1952.
Chiang Kai-shek, with slogan in his hand, carved in stone on Jinmen Island, Fu Collection, Fu-s158 © 2011 C. H. Foo and Y. W. Foo