Untitled (Hong Kong, St. John’s Cathedral, from the Parade Ground, H.M. Regiment on Parade)

1866–73

Lai Fong (Afong Studio)

(Chinese, c. 1839–1890)

Culture

England, 19th century

Medium

albumen print

Measurements

Image: 20.1 x 26.7 cm (7 15/16 x 10 1/2 in.); Paper: 20.1 x 26.7 cm (7 15/16 x 10 1/2 in.); Mounted: 26 x 33.3 cm (10 1/4 x 13 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Sundry Art - Photography Fund 2020.234

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Lai Fong was the most successful nineteenth-century Chinese commercial photographer in China.

Description

Since the customers for landscape photographs were mostly Westerners, most Chinese studios focused on portraiture. Lai Fong, however, offered views of China, which set him in competition with European photographers who had monopolized that market. Here, soldiers from the Queen’s Regiment march on the Parade Ground, which sits below the Anglican St. John’s Cathedral. The picture presents two major organs of social control used by the British Empire in its colonies: the church and the military.