picturing hong kong - HKU Libraries

Preface and Acknowledgments
My interest in photography in China and Hong Kong
grows out of research on nineteenth-century Shanghai
painting and a curiosity about how Chinese visual culture
of this period interacted with and related to this
imported medium. Working in the trenches of nineteenth-century
Chinese culture and social history, one
cannot help but have a fervent interest in the complex
issues of an emerging international hybrid culture in
which photography played so emblematic a role.
The rhetoric of nineteenth-century photography in
China is of particular interest to me, and the case study
of Hong Kong seemed an ideal way to enter the discussion.
This is not only because it was through Hong
Kong that photography entered China, but there is
perhaps no other Chinese city so representative of the
East/West interface. I was especially intrigued by the
purposes, agendas, and functions of early photography
in Hong Kong, and how this visual language, which is
simultaneously document and construction, represented
Hong Kong in all its wonderful contradictions and
hybridities.
It has been my good fortune to have the opportunity
of guest-curating Picturing Hong Kong: Photography
1855—1910 at the Asia Society Galleries. I am very grateful
to the commitment of the Asia Society to this exhibition
and to everyone at the Asia Society Galleries for
their dedication and cooperation. I particularly want to
thank vice president for cultural programs and Galleries
director Vishakha N. Desai; Caron Smith, the Galleries'
associate director and curator, for her patience and
guidance; former managing editor and project editor
Joseph N. Newland, for his sunny pragmatism and
enthusiasm; and Kathryn Selig Brown, curatorial intern
supported by The Henry Luce Foundation, for her
common sense and masterly troubleshooting skills.
Thanks also to Susan E. Chun, current publications
manager, who ably saw the catalogue to completion,
and to registrar Amy V. McEwen, for handling loan
logistics. Galleries associate Merantine Hens-Nolan
assisted with the catalogue and coordinated the exhibition
graphics; Galleries associate Tucker Nichols and
she managed the myriad details of the installation. The
exhibition was designed with aplomb by Dan Schnur,
and Kathy Spitzhoff provided elegant exhibition graphics.
Patrick Seymour of Tsang Seymour Design gave us
a handsome book.
Also at the Asia Society Galleries, Mirza Burgos,
Alexandra Johnson, and Anna Lee worked many
administrative miracles; Nancy Blume coordinated
tours and teachers' workshops; Dawn Draayer and
Alison Yu raised the necessary funds; Tran Ky Phoung
of the Danang Museum of Champa Sculpture, whose
internship at Asia Society was supported by The Henry
Luce Foundation, pitched in; and Linden Chubin and
Anne Kirkup developed the related public programs.
Many people were helpful in my research. Among
those in the United States, I am particularly grateful to
Fong Chow, Kwan Lau, Janet Lehr, andTsim Bok-kow
for their generosity with their time and for sharing
their expertise. I would like to thank Gary Edwards in