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Recent Posts
- Guest blog: Yutong Wang on Policing urban ‘nuisance’: slum clearances in ‘semi-colonial’ Shanghai in the 1930s
- Some that got away
- Guest blog: Alex Thompson on British Law and Governance in Treaty Port China
- Guest blog: Andrew Hillier on Armistice Day and its Aftermath in Treaty Port China
- Guest blog: Kaori Abe on the Abe Naoko Collection –– a glimpse of a Japanese family’s life in Shanghai, c.1927-c.1934
- Guest blog: Ghassan Moazzin on Foreign Banks and Global Finance in Modern China
- Guest blog: Helena Lopes on A connected place: Macau in the Second World War
- Andrew Hillier on Bessie Pirkis: A Renaissance Woman in Peking Part 2
- Guest blog: Rachel Meller on Uncovering the story of Shanghai’s Second World War Jewish refugees
- Andrew Hillier on Bessie Pirkis: A Renaissance Woman in Peking
- Need and opportunity: the new HPC website
- Everything’s changed, but everything’s still the same: HPC update
- Location/Dislocation – Admiral Keppel, the Chinese Buddha at Sandringham and three key photographs
- The Forbidden City at War: Images of the Wartime Evacuation of the Imperial Art Collections
- A name, a photograph, and a history of global connections
Categories
Author Archives: Jamie Carstairs
Bioscoping in Shanghai, c.1923
In this East Meets West, tradition and modernity, studio tableaux, c.1923, two Chinese opera actors meet the celebrity of the day: Charlie Chaplin – or at least Tommy Crellin dressed up as Charlie Chaplin. So, in effect, three photographers in … Continue reading
Egg and spoon race, Chefoo, Easter 1902
If some things Chinese were puzzling to foreigners, some things European may have seemed most odd to the Chinese. How to explain the why and wherefore of an egg and spoon race? In the Commissioner of Customs’s garden at ‘Hillfields’, … Continue reading
Grooved rocks at a sharp turn in the Yangtze River, 1914
Close up photographs of Yangtze River trackers at work pulling boats along the river and through rapids, are scarce, perhaps because the men often worked naked. Nevertheless, decorum permitted an interesting detail (El01-49), as recorded in the caption in the … Continue reading
Posted in Digitisation, Photograph of the day
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Drying noodles between sticks
There is an account of the traditional way of making (‘swinging’) noodles by hand in ‘Classic Food of China’ (1992) by Yan-Kit So: from dancing the dough to splitting it into noodle strands takes a noodle master about fifteen minutes, … Continue reading
Posted in Photograph of the day
Tagged Beaton, food, noodle, Palmer
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Water music
At this impromptu creekside concert, a record is being played for an audience gathered on the bank of a waterway. One wonders what sort of music was played and what the audience thought of it. The gramophone record player is … Continue reading
Piazza Regina Elina, Italian Concession, Tientsin
Between 1860 and 1945, the Chinese port city of Tientsin (Tianjin) was the site of up to nine foreign-controlled concessions, as well as, temporarily, a multi-national military government (1900-02), and a series of evolving municipal administrations. This photograph (Gr01-100) on … Continue reading
Posted in Photograph of the day
Tagged architecture, concrete, design, Grove, memorial, parking, Tianjin, villa;fountain
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A goose being taken to the home of a bride-to-be
Apparently, at the Proposal Meeting (of the parents of the bride-to-be and her groom), the bridegroom’s family will present the bride’s family with a live goose. The bride’s family should not kill the goose and eat it, because the … Continue reading
Posted in Image Annotation, Photograph of the day
Tagged anthropology, betrothal, bird, bridegroom, custom, engagement, fiancé, furniture, goose, marital, marriage, rite, ritual, swan, symbol, table, wedding
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Photographs of photographers: Maude Carrall
The ‘Blossoms’ looks like an orchard of either apple or cherry trees, which was probably in, or close to, Chefoo (Yantai). It must have been a favourite springtime picnic spot for the Carrall family, as their photograph albums hold several … Continue reading
Posted in Photograph of the day, Photographers
Tagged camera, Carrall, Chefoo, hobby, orchard, photography, Yantai
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