Wu Yue (吳樾) - a would-be assassin, killed by his own bomb, Beijing
Collection
Identifier
Pe-s04
Notes
University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China reference number: Pe-s04. This grim post card published by Kingsmill, Shanghai, was sent from China by Harold Peck, to Bob Peck in Birmingham, England, in c.1910. The somewhat wry (and misleading) message written on the card reads: 'If you don't write me at once my spirit will come and haunt you and Jess until you both wax exceeding fearful. Rather a ghastly P.C. this. You will notice they are lopping off the gentleman's hands and feet and generally messing him about. Quite playful aren't they? My love to you and your sweetheart. H.' This is a photograph of the body of Wu Yue (Wu Yueh 吳樾), a revolutionary/anarchist/terrorist bomber/suicide bomber, who attacked a delegation of five government ministers on 24 September 1905, while they were leaving Peking (Beijing) on a special train for a tour abroad to observe constitutional monarchies. The suicide bomber was instantly killed, and his hideously mangled body was photographed. Later the image was occasionally and erroneously said to depict the result of a lingchi execution, with captions such as 'hacked in piece'. The caption on this post card would more accurately be 'A would-be assassin, killed by his own bomb'. Source: http://turandot.chineselegalculture.org/Photographs.php?ID=546&CF=1. See GJ02-39.
Caption on photograph
EXECUTION OF A CHINESE ANARCHIST.
Related Photographs
Location
Date
Sunday 24 September 1905
Material
Paper
Media
Tinted photograph
