Genthe's Photographs of San Francisco's Old Chinatown
A photographic record of San Francisco's old Chinatown. It preserves the layered history of immigration and urban culture in a book of clear documentary value.
Work Information
A quiet photographic archive of a neighborhood that no longer exists in the same form.
A historical record of old Chinatown built from Arnold Genthe's photographs with selection and text by John Kuo Wei Tchen. Its importance lies in preserving urban memory as visual documentation.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Dover Publications
- Published
- 1984-10-01
- Pages
- 144 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 21.59 x 0.64 x 27.31 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780486245928
- ISBN-10
- 0486245926
- Price
- 1899 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Arts & Photography/Photography/History
In 1895, a cultured, well-educated young German named Arnold Genthe arrived in San Francisco as a tutor to the son of an aristocratic family. Almost immediately, Genthe was attracted by Chinatown, or "Tangrenbu" — a teeming ten-block area of crowded buildings, narrow streets, and exotic sights and sounds in the shadow of Nob Hill. Fascinated by a living culture totally foreign to his experience, Genthe began to photograph Tangrenbu and its inhabitants. Today, these photographs (over 200 are known to exist) are the best visual documentary record of Chinatown at the turn of the century, offering priceless glimpses of the rich street life of the district before it was leveled by the great earthquake and fire of 1906. Rediscover the lost world of old Chinatown in serene and enduring images of cobbled streets and bustling shops, street vendors and merchants, fish and vegetable markets, Devil's Kitchen, the Street of the Gamblers, Portsmouth Square and more. But most of all, enjoy distinctive candid portraits of the people of old Chinatown: a pipe-bowl member, a paper gatherer, itinerant peddlers, toy merchants, boys playing shuttlecock, a fortune-teller, a sword dancer, women and children in ornate holiday finery, an aged opium smoker and many other unaffected and revealing images. Rich in detail and atmosphere, the photographs are complemented by historian John Tchen's informative and well-researched text, which outlines the turbulent history of Chinese-Americans in California, dispels numerous myths about Chinatown and its residents, and illuminates the role of Genthe's photographs in capturing the subtle flavor and texture of everyday life in the district before 1906.
Reviews
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Good work.
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Excellent book
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Along with this book I would recommend "The White Devil's Daughters" by Julia Flynn Siler. These two books demonstrate that probably every ethnic/religious/whatever group is the US (World) has experienced discrimination at some point in time. One should note that no group, including those in vogue today, is unique. It is sad but it is a part of the history of humankind that we need to recognize and understand and work against not repeating in the future. We cannot change the past, but we can work on the future.
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I must admit since my wife and I both have extended families living in Chinatown with which we stay on our many visits (staying in a hotel is a sin!) I have soft spot for these simple, occasionally crude, but powerful photographs. Seeing how our ancestors daily lived and knowing the racism and hatred they endured makes our problems seem trivial. To walk through the streets and alleys now, with these photographs forever in mind, grants us access to a vanished way of life.
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Great photos, however the printed portions of the book were small print crammed into rather large pages.
Related Literary Awards
- American Book Awards Edition 6 (1985) ・Winner・Winner
- American Book Awards Edition 7 (1986) ・Winner