Exhibition place：Special Exhibition Hall, CNSM

Exhibition time：2014.8 - 2014.10

Sponsored by:  Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture

Organized by:  China National Silk Museum, Shenzhen Museum,Nanjing Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Museum

Collaborated with: Wellcome Library London,Credential International

        This exhibition presents photographs taken over 140 years ago by the Scotsman John Thomson. They are from the late Qing era, after the two Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, and after China had opened up some coastal trading ports and the west was beginning to exert some influence on a society in transition.

        Between 1868 and 1872, John Thomson travelled nearly 8000 kilometers reaching the Eastern and Northern regions of China, from Guangdong to Fujian and Beijing. He journeyed up the Yangtze and Min Rivers.  Thomson faithfully documented the China that he saw, combining the curiosity of an amateur anthropologist with the artistic eye and sensitivity of a professional photographer.

        These photographs were taken using the most advanced photographic technique of its time, the wet collodion process. Thomson had to travel with a large amount of cumbersome crates to carry heavy glass negatives and bottles of highly flammable chemicals.  His equipment included a mobile dark room because an exposed glass negative had to be fixed immediately with chemical solution. To successfully document China, its land, people and their daily lives, Thomson required physical endurance, mental tenacity and a gifted ability to communicate. From aristocrats and ministers, to merchants and street hawkers, Thomson’s work captured different facets of Chinese society.  It is rare to see such a wide range of women’s costumes documented, including Manchu noble women in silk refinery,farm workers and boatwomen in cotton dresses.

        After his return to Britain, Thomson tirelessly informed the Victorian public about the China that he saw.  Through his publications and illustrated lectures he was able to enhance the public’s awareness and understanding, and became known as ‘China Thomson’.  The sheer quality, depth and range of his work stood out amongst the western photographers who visited China and set new standards for his generation.

        In 1921 Sir Henry Wellcome, the renowned pharmacist and philanthropist, bought his glass negatives from Thomson’s heirs.  The images from this exhibition are all from the Wellcome Library, London. They give us a valuable and memorable insight to the China of the 1870’s.

        Over a century later, in 2009, Thomson’s work returns to China on a worldwide exhibition tour.  It has been successfully exhibited at major museums in Beijing, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, as well as in England, Ireland,Scotland and Sweden.  This is the first time visitors to Zhejiang will see his work before it embarks on an American tour opening in Washington DC next year.