Category Archives: user engagement

David Bellis on Warren Swire's Hong Kong, 1906-1940

David Bellis runs Gwulo.com, an online community for anyone interested in Hong Kong’s history. It hosts over 20,000 pages of information, including over 10,000 photographs. David recently visited Bristol to discuss his work, and met the  team. In this, the … Continue reading

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The Story of China

In BBC2’s The Story of China, Michael Wood has explored the history of the China – “the stories, people and landscapes that have helped create China’s distinctive character and genius over four thousand years”. The excellent and beautifully photographed series … Continue reading

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A trading journey II

‘A Trading Journey’, the exhibition by Alejandro Acin in a shipping container outside the M Shed Museum in Bristol in November, was well received. Since then, Alejandro, who is an assistant at the Historical Photographs of China project, has had … Continue reading

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Year of the Monkey

The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery celebrated the Chinese New Year in style over the weekend. Such was the interest that queues formed in the driving rain, as the building filled to capacity. Among the attractions, was the exhibition The … Continue reading

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Exhibition: 'A Trading Journey'

A TRADING JOURNEY Exhibition by Alejandro Acin From 12th to 22nd of November 2015 // 10am to 5pm Hosted in a shipping container, next to M Shed Museum Cafe  A project which has grown out of the Historical Photographs of China … Continue reading

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Donna Brunero on the Maze Collection of Chinese Junk Models

Junks can be spotted in many of the photographs in our collections of harbours, coasts, and rivers. They attracted curious interest from residents and visitors, for they seemed ‘picturesque’, but they were also caught in snapshots simply because they were an integral … Continue reading

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Robert Nield on Wuzhou, old and new.

Britain’s commercial forays into China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were not always popular at the local level.  More than a hundred towns and cities, large and small, were identified as places of potentially profitable trade by … Continue reading

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Another Prince on the Bund, 1926

This is Prince George, great-grand uncle of the Duke of Cambridge, who is currently visiting Shanghai. The date is 3 June 1926: Empire Day. The Prince is just about to inspect a parade in the extensive grounds of the old British Consulate-General at … Continue reading

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Paul French on The Metropole Hotel, Shanghai

Friend of the blog, author Paul French, ruminates on the Metropole Hotel, which the ‘Historical Photographs of China’ knows well. You can catch more of Paul’s discussions of Shanghai and other histories on his China Rhyming blog. Over at ‘Historic … Continue reading

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What’s a photograph for?

This photograph appeared in a 1911 issue of the monthly magazine Social Shanghai, and shows the Bund-side Public Gardens crowded with Chinese visitors. The date is that of the coronation of King George V, and the original caption reads: A Memorable … Continue reading

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