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China 1890-1938, From the Warlords to World War, A History in Documentary Photographs by Eric Baschef, with an Introduction by Han Suyin (Swan productions AG. Zug/Schweiz, October 1989). The publication details are not on the title page but in the rear of the volume.
Historical photographs of China have a perennial fascination for those many persons the world over who share an interest and affection for the country and its people. China 1890-1938 is as good a collection as any that have appeared to date. The publishers' dust-cover claim that these are "striking, often haunting, photographs portraying the full range of the great empire" is valid enough. Many are familiar, others less so; but much instruction and enjoyment may be had from perusing them all.
Nonetheless, the book itself is rather unsatisfactory. The texts of the titling are not always carefully worded or in some cases accurate, and the translations from the original German or French (the map inside the front cover is in French) sometimes show up clumsily. I imagine that many readers will be able to spot inaccurate captions and attributions for themselves. For me, there is a classic at page 92, where the bottom left photograph has nothing to do with the execution of “Boxers” in Peking but is a well-known record of the execution of pirates on the beach at Kowloon City by the Chinese authorities in 1891: though I have seen this variously described elsewhere, too. And on page 192, a wag is surely having us on! Six heads in wooden cages suspended below a sign in English and Chinese bearing the caption "Speed Limit 15 Miles per Hour" are described as follows: "Anarchy reigns. Speeding motorists are beheaded". I hope not! On P. 205, top, a photograph of a post office is the wrong way around.
The chapter summaries are far too short, almost as though the layout had determined what space was available for the scanty text throughout the book. Also, the one covering the 62 pages on “Immortal China” (pp. 12-73), a fascinating section, is placed at its end, instead of at the beginning where it would be more useful. In fact, this treatment is continued throughout the book, with the same results.
Han Suyin's five-page Introduction is somewhat one-sided in its approach and treatment, as one might expect. It also provides another, revealing, instance of the way in which this book has been compiled. Whereas she covers the years 1900 to 1937, the book's title deals with the period 1890 to 1938, showing the compiler's failure to marry up
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