Photography in China

Emphasizing the medium¿s reception among several Chinese constituencies, this book explores photography¿s impact within new discourses on science, as well as its effects in social life, visual modernity and the media during China¿s transition from imperial to republican government.

General knowledge and academic teaching of early modern Chinese visual culture stops short of fitting photography into the larger context of visual practices and theories. This study redraws the boundaries by making photography the central concern within changing priorities of visual representation and its functions during a period of major cultural and political change. No other study draws on such intimate familiarity with the early glamour of photography as science, commerce and communication in the various local conditions of China¿s cities and towns. Joining a body of critical writing that examines photography¿s histories outside the familiar confines of the West, this book looks beyond