Studio tableau re-enactment of a courtroom scene, Shanghai

Studio tableau re-enactment of a courtroom scene, Shanghai

Identifier

RA-m177

Notes

University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China reference number: RA-m177. A scan of a magic lantern slide. Royal Asiatic Society Library reference: Glass Slide.00/(177). Photograph by Sze Yuen Ming (Yao Hua) Studio. This photograph was most probably taken in Shanghai. See page 31 of 'Photography and China' by Claire Roberts (Reaktion Books, 2013), who notes the 'obvious lack of authenticity' and the 'bizarre theatricality' of this 'crude re-enactment’. The smaller characters on the left of the horizontal banner are: 光緒癸巳七月 耀華照像照. 光緒 (The Guangxu Emperor; the year (19th, i.e. 1893); 7th month (usually around August). So the photograph would probably have been taken in August 1893. 耀華 = the name of Sze Yuen Ming´s Studio. 照像 = photographing image. 照 = photograph. On the right of the banner is an excerpt from a classic Confucian text: 苛政猛於虎 (Oppressive/harsh governments are more terrible than tigers). It can be said that Sze Yuen Ming was satirising crude government and his theatrical exaggeration was deliberate.

Caption in album or on mount

177 / CHINESE COURT

Location

Shanghai

Date

August 1893

Material

Other

Media

Black and white photograph

Repository

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland