Studio tableau re-enactment of a courtroom scene, Shanghai
Collection
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
Date
August 1893
Photographer
Material
Other
Media
Black and white photograph
Repository
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
