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The Early Shanghai Photographs of Pierre Gendron

Sometime between the 1880s and early 1900s, a Frenchman named Pierre Gendron photographed Shanghai. And miraculously, his glass stereoscopic slides, some of the earliest photographs of Shanghai in existence, have survived. As a banker based in Hué (which was then French Indochina), Pierre traveled throughout the region—to Tonkin, Japan, Java, and China–from the 1880s to the early 1900s, and everywhere he went, he took pictures. Over 900 of them.

Quai de France, or the “French Bund”, today’s Zhongshan Dong Er Lu. The crowd is waiting for the boat “Whampoa” at the dock. None of these compradoric style buildings still stands, alas.

Stereoscopic photographs are photographs taken with two lenses, from slightly different viewpoints, and then viewed through a stereoscope–a binocular viewing device—which creates an illusion of depth. The stereoscope was very much in vogue in Second Empire France (and Victorian England), from the mid-1880s to the end of the century, exactly the time period when Pierre Gendron was taking his photographs.

The slides are meticulously labelled in Pierre’s charming 19th century handwriting, so we know what we’re looking at: the French Concession, the Nanjing Road, the International Settlement, the Quai de France, Yu Garden. Some buildings, though, remain a mystery.

“Shanghai, Quartier International”: The Town Hall market.
The southern façade of the old Town Hall market; the view east along today’s Jiujiang Lu, from Guizhou Lu toward Guangxi Lu.down the street.

Over more than a hundred years, some of the slides have been damaged, yet in some cases, that only serves to enhance them:”Rue de Nanking” looks for all the world like a daytime version of van Gogh’s Starry Night, creating an otherworldly sense of this alternate Shanghai that Pierre’s photographs lure you into.

“Rue de Nankin” – Nanjing Road
Rue de Nankin – the building with the large characters offers Fujian-Cantonese goods.

Early Shanghai is frozen for us: the people of Shanghai, caught, mid-step, crossing the street, looking at us across time. No posed photographs here: Instead, people are going about their daily lives, and the details reveal so much. We see the expressions on their faces, their shoes, their hairstyles, exquisite carving on buildings. We see signs–Chinese characters only, or English and Chinese–suggesting a high level of literacy; we see Chinese women traveling alone on the streets; Frenchwomen traveling on boats.

“Rue du Consulat Francais” – Jinling Road today. The white signs indicates that imported goods are for sale here. The shop sign above assures buyers the goods are authentic, and the English below the Chinese says “Chin Fong [??] Piece Goods” Notice the lane neighborhood entrance!
Zooming into the photo reveals a woman with bound feet, riding royally on a wheelbarrow. Next to her are two Sikh guards, and in front of them and man with a queue (pigtail).
The Carlowitz Building, built in 1898, on today’s Jiangxi Road, still stands. Pierre took this photo from the steps of the Kalee Hotel.
Zooming in, you can see the exhaustion on the thin rickshaw puller’s face, the haughty unconcern of his passenger, the determination in the expression and stride of the gentleman walking beside them, perfectly outfitted, top-to-toe in late Qing period menswear!

In general, foreigners in old Shanghai didn’t venture into the Chinese city, with the exception of a trip to see the Huxinting Teahouse — then, as now, a tourist attraction. Pierre visited the teahouse, but gives us not just the usual teahouse image, but photographs it so that we’re able to see how it is sited in the landscape, and how people interacted with what was then perhaps Shanghai’s only tourist attraction.

The Huxinting Teahouse, with its simple wooden zig-zag bridge and open upper stories. The teahouse is still there, but the open air pavilions are enclosed, and its surroundings have changed dramatically!
“Concession Francaise Consulat Police” The old French police station at the SE corner of today’s East Jinling / Tibet Road; a bit of the bridge across Defense Creek is visible.

Travel by boat was another favorite subject, and many of these images are of boats going between Shanghai and the port of Wusong, just 23 kilometers down the Huangpu River.

The return of the boat “Whampoa” to the Quai de France.
Zooming in shows the passengers exuberance upon returning, a little boy at the railing and his mother firmly clutching his hand, and the fashions of the day. Those hats! That Edwardian dress!

Pierre Gendron’s slides remain in the family, in their original cases and cabinets, and in 2000, Pierre’s great-grand niece Tania Owen inherited them from her mother. Only recently, however, was she able to painstakingly scan each one, and begin the search for their origins, which led her to Historic Shanghai.

We’re grateful that she reached out, and grateful for Monsieur Gendron’s slides. In capturing the ordinariness of Shanghai life at the turn of the last century, he has given us an extraordinary gift.

If you have any information on any of these images, email info@historic-shanghai.com and let us know!



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