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Post by helen on Jul 13, 2012 15:46:50 GMT -5
Historical Photographs of China Project Director: Robert Bickers, University of Bristol About the project A collaboration between scholars at the University of Bristol, University of Lincoln, the Institut d'Asie Orientale and TGE-Adonis, this project aims to locate, archive, and disseminate photographs from the substantial holdings of images of modern China held mostly in private hands overseas. These are often of even greater historic interest than might ordinarily be the case, as the destruction of materials inside China in war and revolution in the twentieth century, and especially during the 1966-69 Cultural Revolution, means that there is a relative dearth today of accessible photographic records in China itself. Turmoil in China, and emigration from the country, also led to the development of a large Chinese diaspora. Moreover, thousands of foreigners lived and worked in China between the 1840s and the 1950s, and many thousands more visited for longer or shorter periods. Chinese emigrants, foreign expatriates and visitors alike took, bought or otherwise acquired photographs. Many of these are in libraries and collections in the West, and in addition our research in modern Chinese history has led us to many interesting private collections. Images from private and public collections are available here. An exhibition of some of this material 'Picturing China 1870-1950: Photographs from British Collections' took place in London, Bath, and Durham in 2007-2008. A further exhibition took place at the Grant Bradley Gallery, Bristol, from 17th January to 21st February 2009. Click here for more details about the exhibitions in England. Collaborators in Spain held an exhibition of photographs from the collection in Pamplona in November 2009. During February, March and April 2011, fifty images from Historical Photographs of China collections were exhibited in three different venues in Navarre, Spain. This exhibition in the Basque country was organised by the Red Navarra de Estudios Chinos (Navarre Network of Chinese Studies), and the Universidad Pública de Navarra (Navarre Public University). hpc.vcea.net/
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Post by helen on Jul 13, 2012 16:43:26 GMT -5
China's photographic record begins only in the 1970s because nearly all earlier pictures were destroyed. The ones that survived are mostly outside China, and a major effort is now under way to bring them together online, says the BBC's Mary Ward-Lowery. Twelve years ago a student from Peking University knocked on Robert Bickers' door. He'd come, he said, to study Keats, but he knew Professor Bickers was a historian, a specialist in Sino-British relations at Bristol University. The student had been given a travel grant to come to the UK, with specific instructions to find historical photographs of Peking University. "Because we don't have any," his Chinese professors told him. Old photograph fever is currently sweeping China. A new and intense appetite for images of the country's past has resulted in a publishing phenomenon - sales of books of historical photographs have rocketed. One of the treasures of the collection, however, is a set of photographs taken by a Chinese politician and diplomat, Fu Bingchang. Fu was a talented amateur photographer and his subjects just happen to include the Kuomintang elite. When the Nationalist government fell in 1949, Fu was sent into exile but before he left he arranged for his papers to be smuggled to France. Fu never saw them again but in the early 70s, his son Johnny received a phone call from Fu's former secretary, Chen Ding, inviting him to his house in St Cloud, the Paris suburb where he'd lived for the past 20 years. Johnny discovered a dozen leather suitcases full of photographs, diaries and paintings, an incredible treasure trove, a gift from his father. "I was 12 years old and living in Macao when the Japanese attacked," recalls Johnny, now 83 and living in Lancashire in the UK. Continue reading the main story "We had to run away because of my father's position. We had to walk for seven days non-stop, drinking water from paddy fields. "I was lucky to be alive, lucky to carry the clothes on my back, so we were very lucky to be able to salvage the photos." www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18784990
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Post by chansomvia on Jul 13, 2012 22:38:33 GMT -5
Hi Helen,
I went to a museum in Paris in the early 60's and saw some unforgettable art, particularly a huge scroll of horses hanging from the first floor balcony and disappearing into a roll on the floor, I have no idea of the real full length. Being a poor student at that time I could not afford to buy the catalogue. The museum was, I recall, called the Musee de Art Orientale, I had wanted to go back again to Paris to see the scroll as I have been intrigued all my life on this incredible floor height Chinese brush painting.
There were old photographs, sculptures and vases which I did not appreciate at that time.
The museum could have moved, or artifacts returned, as the art could have been "collected" when the French had influence in China and IndoChina.
Googling did not help as it kept pointing to another museum in modern Paris.
Joe
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Post by helen on Jul 14, 2012 0:59:50 GMT -5
Hi Joe - sorry that you can't locate that scroll again. It must still be somewhere.
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Post by chak on Sept 28, 2012 22:05:33 GMT -5
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