The Chinese Portrait

Preface: The Warmth of a Portrait

Tang Xin, Head of Taikang Insurance Collective

Artwork Collection, Director of Taikang Space, curated Portrait Fever: Taikang’s Photography Collection

Insofar as history consists of the people caught up in it – their consciousness, their spirit, their desires – people’s faces (and of course the bodies attached to them) are the most direct way for history to be visualised by those who come later. In the West, before the invention of photography, images of human figures were preserved in the form of paintings, partly in order to provide role models for the people. Of course, access to this art form was afforded only to a select few; a privilege determined not only by wealth but also political and social standing. To a certain extent, the invention of photography had a democratising effect on the fields of culture and thought. Even though they might not have been in possession of the equipment or the expertise, the proletariat (irrespective of gender or age) now had access to the information contained within photographic portraiture. The new technological democracy combined the hitherto separate worlds of public narrative, private life, and artistic creation to provide a lasting means of making contact with a historical moment. It is this contact, spanning distance and time, that allows us to feel the warmth of a portrait. The tradition of painting in China is more than two thousand years old. Throughout this period, landscapes have been continuously present, but the tradition of portraiture has been more sporadic, to the extent that during the few hundred years that are often seen to be Chinese painting’s golden period, people barely feature at all. This poses an intriguing question: Although portrait has played a role in the history of Chinese painting, this role has not followed an obvious path; it has changed in line with the complexities of the historical context. The arrival of photography in China was a symptom of the country’s entrance into modernity, but the narratives and compositions it gave rise to were different to that of photography in the West. It resulted in a rich and coherent body of portraits of Chinese people. When one is faced with a hundred years of portraiture, one feels the warmth of these people.

Photographic portraiture forms an important part of Taikang Space’s Photography Collection, spanning the late Qing Dynasty to today, and covering political leaders, military officials, artists, writers, workers, farmers, soldiers, traders, students, and even abstract and imaginary figures. In preparation for this exhibition, entitled Portrait Fever: Taikang’s Photography Collection, Taikang Space has been working on schematising and studying its collection of photography. Each portrait in the exhibition is unique, with its own details and allusions, which taken together allow us to piece together a glimpse of the transformations China has faced over its past century – an abbreviated history told through its many varying faces. The exhibition also demonstrates how much Taikang’s Photography Collection has benefited from academic research. Photography fans have found themselves reflecting on both the art of photographed portraiture and the practice of photography collection.

Due to the limited exhibition period, this book has been published with a view to providing continued access to Taikang’s photographed portraiture collection, as well as contemporary research and debates about photographed portraiture. Here, Taikang Space’s team of researchers and curators have written a series of articles from different perspectives on different aspects of the exhibition. We are honoured to have articles written by, amongst others, Chief Editor of Chinese Photography Magazine Jin Yongquan, Lecturer at the Broadcast Research Centre at the Communication University of China Liu Jianping, Photographer and Photography Researcher Shi Zhimin, Chief Image Editor at iCrossChina Zeng Huang, and young Photographer and Photography Researcher Liu Zhangbolong, each of whom has, from his own areas of expertise, opened up for readers new spaces within which to understand and discuss photographed portraiture. While compiling this book, we were delighted to be able to interview Mao Zedong’s former professional photographer Qian Sijie, his wife Chen Huiyan, who was Editor in the Photography Department of Xinhua News Agency, Senior Engineer at Xinhua News Agency and the Chinese Photographers Association Chen Shilin, and Zhang Zuo, who produced the photos of many of the last generation’s photographers as a developer in the darkrooms of China Youth Daily. The experience they share with us here allows us to get a fresh understanding of photography and its history. We would like to express our gratitude here for all of those who contributed articles and participated in interviews for the publication. We look forward to the impact this book will have in terms of providing an insight into the philosophy of Taikang Space’s Photography Collection and research. We hope to play a role in encouraging the conversation on photographed portraiture, collection, and research, with a view to both broadening and deepening the scope for discussion and cooperation in the future.

Portrait Fever: Taikang’s Photography Collection, Taikang Space, Beijing, 2016

Early Photography A Change Behind the Camera

After the Opium Wars, the Qing government opened the doors to international trade, and photography entered mainland China through port cities such as Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Many Westerners visited China to take photos, and some opened photo studios, taking on Chinese apprentices, the brightest of whom would go on to establish their own photography businesses.

The Chinese Portrait

A Fong

Old Gentleman Sitting, 1861-1870 Albumen Print, 21×27cm

A Fong Chinese Lawyer, 1861-1870

Albumen Print, 21×27cm

Costume and Character A Mirror for the True Self

Since the birth of photography, there has always been a passion amongst photographers and their subjects alike for pictures of people in makeup (which includes traditional theatrical characters), cross-dressing, and in costume. In a scene characterised by both meticulous artifice and subjective immersion, the person photographed, whether a professional actor or an amateur cosplay enthusiast, is able to take pleasure in presenting themselves in the manner he or she chooses – a truer self.

The Chinese Portrait

Unknown Artist Girl Reclining in Chair Toward the End of the Qing Dynasty, 1900s Gelatin-Silver Print, 9x13cm

Costume and Character

Unknown Artist Mei Lanfang Dressed as Lin Renfan from A Wisp of Twine, 1916 Gelatin-Silver Print, 20x14.5cm

Unknown Artist

Standard Portraits of Workers at the Beijing Film Production Studio (selection from a total of 916 photographs), 1950s Gelatin-Silver Print, 4x2.5cm

The Seventies Awakening: Standards and Their Dissolution

The standards that were established and formed by a long period of photographic practice did not affect only those seeking to use and produce photography for practical and artistic ends, but also the broader group of anyone who saw photographs. For many decades, the huge portraits people had seen on a daily basis had conformed to the previously established standards which gradually came to form how photography as such was understood – how a photo ought to be taken – even when these photos were picturing people and situations that were a challenge to the status quo. When photographers and subjects began to adopt these standards self-consciously, or even to excess, it signalled the coming dissolution of these very standards.

The Chinese Portrait

Jun Ling

Standing Watch at the Coast, 1971

Gelatin-Silver Print, 21x16cm

Sample Photograph from the Eternal Light of the Seventh of May Instructions Album, 1971 Gelatin-Silver Print, 24x19.5cm

The Eighties and Later Free: Snapshots into Art

With the arrival of the 1980s, there was even greater freedom with regard to how beauty was defined and realised. People were less restricted in their use of the camera and we were presented with artists’ depictions of more everyday figures and marginalised groups. An even more profound question is how photography functioned as an intermediary between observer and observed. Portraiture, from the real and concrete to the abstract and conceptual, incited more discussion on how photography is theorised and conceptualised. As the traditional photographic form began to enter the world of contemporary artistic praxis and its imaginary visual spaces, the scope and understanding of the portrait became progressively more expansive and complex.

The Chinese Portrait

Li Zhiming (Kunming Picture Agency) Girl Looking at the Sky, 1980s Gelatin-Silver Print, 46x38cm

Zhao Jiayuan (Kunming Picture Agency) Winter, 1980s

Gelatin-Silver Print, 40x29cm

© 2023 Taikang Space

World copyright reserved

ISBN: 978 178884 110 8

First published in the Chinese language by 泰康空间, under the title 肖像热： 泰康摄影收藏

Copyright for the original version: © 2017/泰康空间

This English-language edition first published by ACC Art Books by agreement with Taikang Space

The right of Taikang Space to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Chinese Portrait is published with grateful thanks to the following image

copyright holders:

Gao Fan (1922-2004, 高帆)

Han Lei (1967- ,韩磊)

Liu Zheng (1969-, 刘铮)

Luo Yang (1984- , 罗洋)

Ma Liuming (1969- ,马六明)

Wu Yinxian (1900-1994, 吴印咸)

Xiao Lu (1962- , 肖鲁)

Zhang Dali (1963- ,张大力)

Zhang Haier (1957-, 张海儿)

Polit-Sheer-Form Office (政纯办)

The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions in the text and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

English-language translation: Stephen Nashef

English-language proofreading: Emily Cooper

Editor: Andrew Whittaker

Design concept: Anna Rieger

Typesetting: Stephen Farrow

Cover: Photograph taken from Beidahuang Photo Album, Wu Yinxian, 1960s

Page 2: Open Fire, Xiao Lu, 2004

Pages 6-7: Photograph Selected for the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Yan’an Forum on Arts and Literature, Political Department of Kunming Military Zone, 1972