Postcard, Late Qing China (Second Edition)

Author: Chen Ling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-31
Features: Imagine, back then, some Westerners selected what they deemed "Eastern scenes" and printed them as postcards, while others traveled to China, bought them, and mailed them back to distant Western countries with Chinese stamps. Years later, these postcards that had survived the journey were deemed valuable by their Western owners and preserved. They were then purchased and collected by other Westerners, who also found them valuable. After many more years, they were sold at auctions, and eventually, a pair of Chinese painters traveled the world, carefully selecting them one by one, sometimes for as little as a hundred pounds and as much as several hundred pounds. Through the extensive collection of postcards purchased abroad by the renowned Chinese painters Wang Jianan and Cai Xiaoli, who spent many years traveling in the UK, we can understand how foreigners viewed the decline and corruption of the Qing Dynasty, their contempt and disdain for the ignorance and apathy of the people, and the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance at the time. This book vividly portrays the historical reality, holding significant historical and collectible value. These postcards were originally bought for personal enjoyment, but as the collection grew, they were arranged by different scenes and in chronological order, revealing a majestic but tragic sunset of the Qing government, the gradual decline and humiliation of a vast empire by outsiders, and the countless magnificent landscapes and buildings of that era, now reduced to ruins—a heart-wrenching sight that evokes profound regret and endless contemplation.