Qing Dynasty Stunning Photos Of China Before The Revolution

Haunting images of the Qing dynasty Chinese culture and society that the nation’s leaders wiped out after the communist revolution.

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1 of 45Boys peek their heads out on a commercial street.

Guangzhou, Guangdong. 1880.Wikimedia Commons 2 of 45A traditional pagoda, today known as the Jinshan Temple, sits on an island in the River Min.

Hongtang. Circa 1871.Wikimedia Commons 3 of 45A doctor checks a patient’s foot. Under the rule of the Qing dynasty, every Han Chinese man was required to wear his hair in a braid.

Beijing. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 4 of 45Young girls practice the Beijing Opera at a theater school in Beijing. Their feet have been bound.

Beijing. 1934.Wikimedia Commons 5 of 45Three young girls with bound feet. In imperial China, young girls would have their feet bound, crushing them into a tiny, mutilated shape they called the “lotus foot.” The Communist Party viewed foot binding as a symbol of China’s “backwardness” that needed to be eliminated.

Liao Chow, Shanxsi. 1920s.Flickr/Ralph Repo 6 of 45Boys at a mission school climb on each other’s shoulders to form a dragon.

Beijing. 1902.Flickr/Ralph Repo 7 of 45Men, with their hair in Qing braids, eating a meal.

Hong Kong. 1880.Wikimedia Commons 8 of 45Peasant men carry bricks of tea on their back. The bricks of tea on their backs weigh more than 300 pounds. These men would often have to make deliveries by walking 112 miles on foot, with all of that weight on their backs,

Sichuan. 1908.Flickr/Ralph Repo 9 of 45A Mandarin man poses with his son.

Location unspecified. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 10 of 45Children in a schoolyard practice dancing.

Zhengjiang. 1905.Wikimedia Commons 11 of 45A Beijing opera troop.

Location unspecified. 1919.Flickr/Ralph Repo 12 of 45An elderly woman, wearing a traditional hairstyle poses in profile.

Location unspecified. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 13 of 45A crowd gathers to watch a Beijing opera. During the Cultural Revolution, these would be replaced with “Revolutionary Operas,” which were required to show the heroism of the People’s Republic.

Qingdao. 1908.Wikimedia Commons 14 of 45Two wealthy merchants eat and enjoy the company of girls paid to sing. These men, as part of the bourgeois, would be major targets of the new regime after the Communist Revolution.

Beijing. 1901.Flickr/Ralph Repo 15 of 45Two singing girls pose for the camera. The instrument that the girl on the left is holding is called an erhu.

Hong Kong. 1901.Flickr/Ralph Repo 16 of 45Men stand near the cannons of their local arsenal.

Nanjing. 1872.Wikimedia Commons 17 of 45Men eating noodles purchased from a street vendor.

Guangzhou. 1919.Flickr/Ralph Repo 18 of 45Three merchants in traditional dress reflecting class hierarchies, with the two older men (seated) wearing furs or more elaborate robes and the younger man (standing) wearing plainer clothes.

Kwangtung. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 19 of 45A man rides a pony before the city gates.

Shaanxi. 1909.Wikimedia Commons 20 of 45A woman poses with her maid (right) near a bronze incense burner.

Beijing. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 21 of 45Chinese men pose with camels. Before paved roads and trains filled the veins of China, long distance travel would often be done on the backs on camels.

Beijing. 1901.Flickr/Ralph Repo 22 of 45A boatwoman.

Kwangtung. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 23 of 45A woman poses with her child.

Beijing. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 24 of 45A man, wearing traditional robes, poses near a window.

Location unspecified. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 25 of 45A wealthy woman rides on a white pony, led by a young boy in peasant’s clothes.

Qingdao. 1900.Wikimedia Commons 26 of 45A girl wears her hair in a traditional coiffure.

Beijing. 1869.Flickr/Ralph Repo 27 of 45The ladies of the palace, dressed in the imperial clothes of the Qing dynasty. Their faces have been painted white.

Beijing. Circa 1910-1925.Flickr/Ralph Repo 28 of 45A servant working for a wealthy family. Her feet have been bound.

Location unspecified. 1874.Wikimedia Commons 29 of 45A girl sits while holding a fan.

Beijing. Circa 1861-1864.Flickr/Ralph Repo 30 of 45Two musicians pose with their instruments.

Kwangtung. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 31 of 45This photo is labeled “The Abbot of the Monastery.” The subject is likely a Taoist priest.

Religion was suppressed during the Cultural Revolution under Marxist ideals. Taoists had to practice their religion in secret.

Chekiang. 1906.Flickr/Ralph Repo 32 of 45Men smoking opium. During the Kuomintang party’s rule in the early 1900s, opium was trafficked to fund the party.

The Communist Party, however, took a much harder line with opium and classified drug traffickers as the “enemies of the people.” By 1951, the Communist Party claimed that opium abuse had been “wiped out.”

Location unspecified. 1880.Wikimedia Commons 33 of 45An elderly man poses with his mule.

Beijing. 1869.Wikimedia Commons 34 of 45Before the Communist Party came into power, opium abuse was officially illegal. But in practice, it was fairly common. These smokers are hiding out in an illegal den.

Beijing. 1932.Wikimedia Commons 35 of 45Chinese policemen punish a criminal by lashing him with a big paddle, a common punishment in old China. During the Communist era, this punishment would be shown in period dramas as an example of Qing cruelty.

Location unspecified. 1900.Flickr/Ralph Repo 36 of 45A bride on her way to her wedding. Normally, a bride would cover her face with a red veil. It’s not entirely clear why this woman is using a basket.

Fuzhou, Fujian. Circa 1911-1913.Flickr/Ralph Repo 37 of 45A bride with her face unveiled.

Beijing. 1867.Flickr/Ralph Repo 38 of 45A woman puts on her wedding dress and poses with her daughter on her lap.

Beijing. 1871.Flickr/Ralph Repo 39 of 45A woman with bound feet at work, tending to a stove.

Hebei. 1936.Flickr/Ralph Repo 40 of 45A woman checks out the market. Her child is sleeping, strapped to her back.

Hong Kong. 1946.Flickr/Ralph Repo 41 of 45A family from a minority group in Lanzhou. China is an incredibly diverse country, containing some 55 unique ethnicities, each one with its own culture.

During the Cultural Revolution, ethnic minorities were pressured to give up their special statuses and cultures and embrace the new world of the revolution – usually by force.

Lanzhou. 1944.Flickr/Ralph Repo 42 of 45Taiwanese aborigines from the Bunun tribe. When the Communist Party came into power in 1945, the nationalist Kuomintang fled to Taiwan. There, they installed a “one language, one culture” policy that eroded the Bunun way of life.

Taiwan. 1900.Flickr/Ralph Repo 43 of 45Mongolian strongmen performing in the August Games, dressed in traditional clothes. During the Cultural Revolution, Inner Mongolia was plagued by revolutionaries trying to hunt down a separatist party. By the end, 22,900 people were beaten to death.

Hebei. 1909.Flickr/Ralph Repo 44 of 45A Tibetan princess.

The Tibetan uprising was a direct response to the effects of the Cultural Revolution and the Communist Party’s redistribution of their land.

Tibet. 1879.Flickr/Ralph Repo 45 of 45Like this gallery?Share it:

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44 Stunning Photos Of China Before Its Communist Transformation View Gallery

A century ago, China was not the metropolis-filled industrial nation that it is today. It was another world entirely, with cultures that were in many ways equally distinctive.