Author Archives: Robert Bickers

C is for Changsha

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Robert Bickers

A snapshot of a busy thoroughfare in Changsha, capital of Hunan province. The men are not sporting the ‘queue’, so this is a post-1911 shot, and the flat cap on the left dates it perhaps to the 1920s at least. … Continue reading →

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Cat in the Chinese countryside

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Robert Bickers

This one of several score portraits in the albums of Shanghai detective chief William Armstrong. They were taken in the years before he left China in 1927, when he was on houseboat holidays west of Shanghai in the Taihu region … Continue reading →

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Dogs in Nanning, 1918

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Robert Bickers

This photograph is one of two showing the domestic establishment of R.F.C. Hedgeland in 1918, when the Briton was Nanning Commissioner of the Chinese Maritime Customs. We have his ‘chair coolies’ in the back row, two other ‘coolies’ (his caption), … Continue reading →

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1925 on the Nanjing road Shanghai, Bicyles, natty dressers, revolution

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Robert Bickers

Another from Shanghai detective chief William Armstron’s albums. This is probably 1 June 1925, and it’s a view along the Nanjing road in Shanghai towards the Wing On department store. The crowd at the junction ahead are gathered around a … Continue reading →

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B is for … Bubbling Well Road, Shanghai 上海南京西路老照片

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Robert Bickers

The Bubbling Well Road was the road to the ‘Bubbling Well’, to Jing’an Temple, an extension of the Nanjing Road, known to Chinese residents as the ‘Dama lu’ 大马路’. Early residents of what became the International Settlement used to walk … Continue reading →

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This month in history, 1927: Shanghai 上海浙江路老照片

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Robert Bickers

In mid-late March 1927 the force of the Guomindang’s National Revolutionary Army moved into the city of Shanghai. Communist insurrections had already taken place, but the forces of a regional militarist, Sun Chuanfang (孙传芳), including units of refugee Russian soldiers, … Continue reading →

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A is for … Antung (Dandong) 丹东市老照片

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Robert Bickers

Warren Swire made a handful of visits to this port at the mouth of Yalu River between 1911-12 and 1934. The border with Korea, then under Japanese control was close by. This shot shows the installation at the harbourside of … Continue reading →

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At the theatre, Weihaiwei, c.1901

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Robert Bickers

This is one of a number of images that we have of theatrical performances in China. It was probably taken by R.M.C. Ruxton, who was variously in the British ‘Weihaiwei’ or First Chinese Regiment, the Salt Gabelle (the Chinese state … Continue reading →

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More moderns, in Tianjin

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Robert Bickers

A group shot probably taken by Customs officer, Briton Reginald F.C. Hedgeland, in 1905 in the northern port city of Tianjin. (Perhaps that is his uniform cap, balanced on the wooden frame on the right). Unusually well-educated for the Customs … Continue reading →

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1945: Facing the future

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Robert Bickers

The caption is the photographer’s. Air Vice-Marshall Arthur Fiddament (1896-1976) took this Kodachrome colour slide in Chongqing, battered war-time capital of the Republic of China, on a whirlwind round the world trip in late 1945. They arrived in Kunming on … Continue reading →

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