A Photographer in Old Peking

Product DescriptionPeking is one of the great cities of the world and one of the most fascinating. It has changed so radically in the past thirty years that the city's fabulous past is in danger of being lost to memory. This memoir of Peking from 1933 to 1946, compiled by one of the finest photographers whohas ever worked in Asia, is thus a significant document and will be of interest not only to longstanding China-watchers but also to the many tourists who have been privileged to visit Peking in the decade since the city has again been opened to the West. The photographs provide a unique insightinto life in Peking in the years preceeding the Communist revolution of 1949. The photographer, Hedda Morrison, left Nazi Germany in 1933 to manage a German-owned photographic studio in Peking. Her sympathetic approach to her subject is manifested in the large number of photographs showing Chinesepeople from all walks of life at work and enjoying their leisure. Architectural studies provide valuable evidence of buildings and monuments that have since changed or disappeared, and photographs taken beyond Peking and in the Western Hills convey the beauty of the north China landscape.From Library JournalThe "old Peking" so beautifully portrayed in this remarkable collection largely has disappeared, and the modern city is replete with high-rise apartment complexes and huge glass-encased hotels. Morrison worked as a photographer and lived in Peking from 1933 to 1946, in its last years as a traditional city. As a resident in a quieter era, she recorded not only the walls, palaces, streets, and shops of old Peking, but also its people and their crafts. Her lovely black-and-white photographs of rich men in traditional gowns, old workshops, temple grounds, and street vendors all capture a life almost completely gone. Morrison's own modest introductions and informative captions help us to understand the atmosphere. An unusual and valuable book about pre-1949 China. David D. Buck, History Dept., Univ. of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Author: Hedda Morrison

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Binding: Hardcover

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0195840569

ISBN-13: 9780195840568