Description
Photograph, 'Antiquarian bookshop', black and white, silver gelatin print, by Hedda Morrison, Peking, China, 1933-1946. The image shows a young man seated at a writing desk. He has a pen in his hand and is writing on a piece of paper. An open book and some small containers sit on the desk. Beside him, to the right of the man (left of the image), is a clock in a case, and light streams in the window behind the clock. Behind the desk from the floor to the ceiling, are shelves filled with boxes of traditional string-bound books. Tags with identifying Chinese characters are attached to the books.

Significance statement
Vast libraries of historical texts, sometimes numbering many thousands of volumes, such as Gu jin tushu jicheng and the Si ku chuan shu, were published in Peking during the reigns of the Manchu-Qing emperors Kang Xi (1662-1722) and Qianlong (1736-1795) respectively. These multi-volume texts provided an unprecedented amount of material for the antiquarian bookshop traders of Liulichang.

Production notes
This is one of a large number of photographs that were taken by Hedda Morrison (1908-1991) during her years of residence in Peking (Beijing), China 1933-1946.

History notes
Exhibited in 'An Asian experience: 1933-67', organised by the Asian Studies Association of Australia, Fisher Library Foyer, University of Sydney, 12-30 May 1986. Reproduced in Hedda Morrison, 'A photographer in Old Peking', Hong Kong, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 183 and cover, with the caption: 'The bookshop. Old Chinese literary texts were frequently reprinted with or without additional commentaries, resulting in an enormous literary output and a great volume of work for booksellers, bibliophiles and librarians'.

Credit line
Gift of Mr Alastair Morrison, 1992

Registration number
92/1414-292