1931 - flooding turns Hangkou into a temporary Venice.

Interregnum ~ a period of discontinuity of a government, organization, or social order.

You're not indifferent to history , even if you protest so. More likely, you're afraid of it. Acknowledging the joy and pain, the utter reality of events that happened just a human life-span ago sends the subconscious wheeling. You mean, we're all going to be gone soon? With only a few photos to take our place? Absolutely. Pray your photos aren't interesting enough to draw historical notice, as these are.

China's first multinational employees, these mai ban, or procurers, help their foreign dinner partners get quality goods cheap, no meaningful government excise since the Opium Wars.

After 1911's Wuceng Revolution, most southeastern Chinese men got rid of their queues. Many in the North were more reticent. In 1912, Sun Yatsen ordered the army out to clip queues by force.

1915 - shortly after declaring himself emperor, Yuan Shikai makes his way with a regal cortege to observe the imperial ceremonies at Beijing's Temple of Heaven.

January 28th, 1932, the Japanese take Shanghai, but not without resistance. A Chinese counter-invasion force rushes through a narrow alley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the more well-publicized horrors of the war: live target bayonet practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1938 - Street children, orphaned by war, line up for relief.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1938 - Countryside peasants offer food and drink to the PLA's famed 8th Route Army.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eigth Route Army regulars hold of a Japanese attack at the Fuyutu section of the Great Wall, in Hebei Province.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canadian hero Dr. Norman Bethune performing one of his countless field surgeries. He would later die from an infected finger, cut during such an operation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Finish leader election work on time." Youths crowd around their favorite to head the village.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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