Continental Center / Full Report
▲ When Cixi first took the photos, she knew that the photos should be “printed”. (Image/flip from Baidu Encyclopedia)
Western photography was introduced to China at the end of the Qing Dynasty, when a terrible legend related to cameras was widely spread among the people. The camera is said to capture a person’s soul. Once a person’s figure is captured in the camera, that person’s soul will remain in the photo. People who lose their souls will soon die. Therefore, at that time, many people preferred to choose portraits rather than taking pictures.
As a ruler of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi was very interested in cameras, but she dared not take pictures lightly. It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that De Lin, the daughter of the famous diplomat Yu Geng, entered the palace and explained the basic principles of the camera to her, and Cixi gradually accepted this. Cixi’s first formal photo shoot was after De Lin’s older brother Xunling entered the palace. At that time, Xunling brought a bulky box-shaped camera. After Cixi put it on, she stood behind the box and looked through the lens. She was surprised to see the little eunuch in front of the camera standing with his head down and his feet up. She was very surprised. After taking the photo, Cixi couldn’t wait to see the finished product.
▲Cixi visited the darkroom. (Schematic diagram / taken from Baidu Encyclopedia)
At this point, De Lin explained with a smile that the photos had to be developed before they could be viewed. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were no mobile phones and instant cameras, all photos taken with old-fashioned cameras had to go through the printing process. In this regard, Cixi became interested again, and directly asked that she end up doing the “press”. Xunling and Deling were unable to explain clearly for a while, so they simply took Empress Dowager Cixi to visit the printing studio. At the time, photos had to be developed in a darkroom and negatives did not have to be exposed before the photos were developed on developing paper.
Cixi entered the darkroom for the first time and accidentally saw the water developing, and when her face in the photo was very dark, she was shocked, thinking it was a sign of impending disaster. In fact, because the resolution of the old-fashioned photos is not high, and it is Cixi’s first time taking photos, she is inevitably a little nervous and has a candid expression, so the effect can be imagined.
