Qing Palace dramas like to claim that they have referenced historical materials. The life scenes of the Qing Palace constructed are absolutely real. As a result, the world created by various filters, color matching, and careful makeup attracted many people's infinite imaginations, and they all wanted to travel to , Qing Dynasty to experience the lives of the ancients.
But is the real Qing Palace world really so beautiful? In fact, if you look at more historical materials, you won’t think so. Not to mention the numerous shackles of ancient feudal thought, just looking at what everyone ate and dressed during the Qing Dynasty would be enough to scare away a lot of people. doesn’t believe it. You can look at the real Qing Dynasty life recorded by this Frenchman with a camera a hundred years ago. It will make all the filters of the Qing Dynasty shatter, so - don’t be deceived by TV series!
Albert Kahn His person
This person who recorded life in the Qing Dynasty with a lens is called Albert Kahn. He is a French Jewish . Because he was born poor and suffered a lot, he often relied on his own to explore and strive for how to go ahead.
Fortunately, the era he lived in happened to be the time when the industrial revolution harvested the results. At that time, the European and American markets were full of opportunities. The young Albert Kahn built his own family with the east wind of the industrial revolution. After had a full family foundation as support, Albert Kahn also had the opportunity to develop his interests and hobbies.
At this time, Albert Kahn found that he fell in love with the emerging photography technology at that time, so he took a camera and recorded a lot of European situations in that era. But gradually became no longer satisfied with Europe. He wanted to go to the world and appreciate the different charms of various countries.
So starting from 1908, Albert Kahn embarked on a journey around the world with his camera. Because in the European world, China has always been an ancient and mysterious existence. There is the gold mentioned in in in , the porcelain and silk that have attracted countless Europeans to be loved by them, and the customs and cultures that are completely different from the European world. So Albert Kahn quickly locked his destination in China, and in the second year of starting the travel plan, Albert Kahn set foot on Chinese territory.
But after coming to China, Albert Kahn was a little confused because was devastated . This is actually very normal. In 1909, China was already in the last few years of the Qing Dynasty rule. The stormy Qing Dynasty had been ravaged by the cavalry of the great powers. The lives of the people were no longer enough, so how could there be a scene of gold everywhere?
Qing Dynasty
Albert Kahn's first sight was the life scene of the people at the bottom. At that time, people were influenced by the Qing Dynasty rule. Everyone had a strange and ugly braid on their heads, and their clothes were all torn, withered and haggard faces, and there was no blood or complexion on their faces. All they could perceive was despair and numbness about life.
This atmosphere wrapped Albert Kahn, making him feel shrouded in a haze, and he couldn't breathe. There are more than one situation like , and this is the case in many places he goes to. Even Albert Kahn came to the home of the wealthy family at that time and could not feel any vitality.
In his camera, almost everyone's face was solemn, with no light in their eyes and no smile at the corners of their mouths. Those so-called wealthy families, the master's wife, feel that a group of people who live a life together, and there seems to be two words written in everyone's eyes: Living.
. Even if you don’t take pictures of characters and only take pictures of the scenery, most of the things you see in are broken walls, which are not as magnificent as you imagine.
Such situations finally improved when encountering the upper-class official families. At least the people in these families are no longer as thin as if they can blow down in a gust of wind, and some ladies and ladies in can still smile when they communicate. Officials don’t feel numb, but rather grand and majestic.
But this situation actually confirmed the suffering of living at the bottom at that time. was all gained by seizing the living resources of the lower class people, and it looked really depressing.
The significance of Albert Kahn's photos
Perhaps it was because he felt the huge gap between reality and imagination, and Albert Kahn left China shortly after filming these contents. Of course, it is also possible that the situation at that time was already in chaos, the uprising forces in various places began to rise, and the misunderstanding of warlord separatism gradually took shape.
Such a chaotic society is no longer the wealth and happiness that Albert Kahn yearns for. There is no content when shooting, but it will put yourself in some unfavorable situations. So not much is recorded under the lens of Albert Kahn. But these limited pictures show us a very real Qing Dynasty.
First of all, these photos have rarely appeared in color pictures , making these records more detailed and more valuable.
Secondly, although these photos record scenes from the late Qing Dynasty, they no longer only take pictures of the inner courtyard of the palace and the life scenes of wealthy families that many foreigners pay attention to. They truly look at the common people, and what they record is not all suffering. They also record the street businessmen, common interpersonal communication, and leisure life... These contents are simple, ordinary, and are the closest to people's lives.
Although these photos are far from the interpretation in the TV series, we can also feel the unique tenderness of Albert Kahn's lens. is because these real scenes are extremely objective and do not have any foreigners' gaze or the subjective conjectures of the photographer, which also makes this set of photos have a different meaning.
summary
The world recorded in the lens of Albert Kahn is not a beautiful world, but it is absolutely true. Seeing this, do you still envy the life of the Qing Dynasty?
In addition, China was once a place that many Europeans and Americans yearned for, but the practices they took for the place they yearned for were not references and learning, but chose to open China's doors with guns and cannons to force and rob, and rob and kill. And it is this humiliating history that tells us that only strong can not be at the mercy of others, and only strong can defend our due rights.
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