My last book, entitled Exotic Commodities: Modern Objects and Everyday Life in China, New York: Columbia University Press, includes a hundred rare photos documenting the material landscape of the republican era, and many have not hitherto been published. Reproduced below are several dozen of photos selected with Jack Birns, who was a photographer with Life-Time in China in 1947-9, from his personal archives in Los Angeles. The specific context and meaning of these photos are discussed in the book.
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Jack Birns on Modern China
Shop at Night
The Great World
Thermos Bottle
Taxi Company
Kitsch Statues
Shoe Shiner
Sewing Machines
Studio
Plane
Portrait Studio
Shirts
Shanghai Clothing
Running Water
Mirrors
Kerosene Lamp
Cargo Plane
Pedicab Drivers
Iron Door
Fire-Crackers
Crowded Rivers
Cheap Clothes
Hats
Goods
Gambling Joint
Cheap Spectacles
Factory
Belongings of the Poor
Bench
Bottling Water at the Well
