Beijing

Photos of Beijing in the 1930s and '40s

Peking_Lady_Hedda_Morrison.jpg
1930s Beijing lady by Hedda Morrison

One of the delights of the English language China blog scene is In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock, a photoblog about western Yunnan and eastern Tibet, where the botanist Joseph Rock travelled extensively in the 1920s. The blog compares photos taken back then with images shot by himself in the last decade or so.

He also posts photos to The Beijing Observer where has been running a series of old photos of Beijing by German photographer Hedda Morrison who lived in the city from 1934 to1946 when it was known as Peiping (北平) or 'Northern Peace'.

Hedda Morrison neé Hammer married Alastair Morrison, who born in Beijing in 1915, the son of the famous (or perhaps notroious) Australian correspondent for The Times and political fixer George Morrison.

coal_hill_beihai.jpg
Coal Hill, Beijing 1946 or '7 by Dmitri Kessel

More recently, The Beijing Observer has been posting color photos by Kiev-born soldier-turned photographer Dmitri Kessel. From an email to Danwei:

Looking through the newly released Life magazine image files on Google Image, I came across some stunning old pictures of Beijing by Dmitri Kessel. I presume they come form his time in China in 1946-7. I've put a few samples on The Beijing Observer, or you can see the whole collection on Google Images.

From Kessel's obituary in The Independent:

life_cover_peking.jpg
Kessel's Peiping in Life

Dmitri Kessel was trained as a soldier, attending the Paltava Military Academy in Russia before serving as a cavalry officer in the Ukrainian and Red Armies in the early 1920s. After his time in the military was over, he studied industrial chemistry in Moscow, but was soon to join the flow of emigrants to the United States. By 1925, he had settled in New York City.

Few Eastern European emigrants found the transition to life in the US an easy one. Kessel took part-time jobs, working in the fur industry and as a correspondent for Russian-language newspapers before enrolling on a course at the Rabinovitch School of Photography in 1934. His training in photography coincided with rapid changes within the medium itself. The coming of the new miniature 35mm Leica camera, enabled photographers to work quickly and unobtrusively in the most difficult situations; the consequent emergence of the great American picture magazines Life and Fortune provided a perfect platform for new young photojournalists including Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Kessel.

In 1942, Kessel became a war correspondent for Life, and after the war shot almost exclusively for that magazine, in places as far afield as China, Hungary, Palestine, India and Japan.

Links and Sources
There are currently 3 Comments for Photos of Beijing in the 1930s and '40s.

Comments on Photos of Beijing in the 1930s and '40s

Hong Kong based photographer Edward Stokes and the Hong Kong Conservation Photography Foundation manage a great site dedicated to the life and work of Hedda Morrison.

Focusing mainly on her work throughout Hong Kong (1946 - 47), but also featuring Beijing and other parts of China she visited.

Jem, delighted to see this entry : )

Oooo - lovely.

The irony of Dmitri Kessel's photos is that they are nearly identical to today's China. I think that is an amazing quality about China that most other country's lack: the resistance to change (as much as their government tries).

Post a comment

All comments are moderated and subject to review by Danwei contributors and editors, but well-grounded and articulate comments will be published regardless of which way they lean. Because comments published on any website ultimately contribute to the character of that website, we may decline to publish comments that are irrelevant, redundant, or that do not adhere to generally accepted standards of courtesy; if you are looking for a fight, there are plenty of other venues available online.


Some useful html: <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>,
<a href="http://www.danwei.org">link</a>

Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL091030storiesforthcoming.jpg
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ New Weekly: Do Chinese kids know anything about traditonal Chinese culture? (2004.06): Q: Do you know what China's four great inventions are? Paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder 49.3% know all four, 37.3% get one or more wrong, 13.3% don't know at all (2004.06.12)
+ The horrors of SMS messaging (2007.09): Naraka 19 (地狱第19层), based on the Cai Jun (蔡骏) novel, gets neutered by SARFT.
+ China's illegal yellow press (2005.05): On the left is the front page of 'Military News', a newspaper without masthead, contact phone number or any kind of publication licence (required by Chinese law). The paper was purchased on the Beijing subway for two yuan, which is relatively expensive, as most of the city's daily newspapers cost only half a yuan.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30