Penetrating Temporality: Thinking about the Internal Histories of Nineteenth-century Chinese Photography

What does the current temporal framework of nineteenth-century world photography say about the earliest photographs of China and Chinese, and what are the hidden narratives, thoughts, and histories within this framework? Using the most widely circulated photographs done by William Saunders, Tung Hing, See Tay, and Afong as well as some of the anonymous works as examples, this paper reveals the specific contexts, cultural conventions, and rituals of the so-called ‘stereotypes’ and ‘souvenir photography,’ and digs into the images from the hitherto concealed perspectives of Chinese photographers and their local patrons. Departing from the macro post-colonial discourses on treaty port art and commerce, my aim is to open up an alternative, layered understanding of the images based on the micro and internal histories of their production and circulation.