Chinese Embassy receives gift from retired US Foreign Service officer that is treasure trove of a bygone era

The Chinese Embassy in Washington received a special gift from a retired US Foreign Service officer on Feb 19.

It was a set of 24 photos taken in China in the 1930s, presented to Wu Xi, deputy chief of mission of the Chinese Embassy, by Richard Garrison of Arlington, Virginia.

The photos, which depict street life and scenes in major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao, were remnants left by his mother, Stella Garrison, who passed away more than 10 years ago.

Each photo carries a description about 300 words long. A photo of a then-modern street in Canton (now called Guangzhou) describes the city's population and how automobiles were introduced into the city.

The other, a stunning view of the Great Wall, tells the history of the wall, including how it was used to defend against "barbarians" and then became useless and fell into decay.

Still another, about a man operating a hand mill to grind soybeans, talks about how important soybeans are to Chinese as a source of protein, fat and calories, calling it "poor man's meat and poor man's milk".

There is a vivid scene of Chinese peasants working in rice paddies, and another showing the ruins in Shanghai's Zhabei area following an attack in January 1932 by the Japanese Imperial Army.

All of the photos were made by the Keystone View Co, a major distributor of stereographic images in the old days.

Richard Garrison did not remember seeing the photos as a child. "I think she must have kept them because she enjoyed looking at them," he said of his mother.

Stella Garrison, who first became a teacher in a country school near Tecumseh, Nebraska, about 70 miles south of Omaha, and then at schools in other parts of Nebraska, had the photos for decades after she had got them from the state superintendent's office.

She and her husband finally got to visit Asia in the mid 1980s, a trip that took them to Beijing, Hong Kong and Thailand.

"My mother said she was surprised, shocked and pleased when my father said, 'Let's go to China,' " Richard Garrison recalled. "They enjoyed it."

The parents took a side trip to visit a Chinese school. They also told Richard how intensive agriculture is in China.

"Every part of the land is used, nothing seems to be wasted," was how Richard recalled his mother's words.

He thought about giving the photos to Smithsonian museums but realized that they may already have had similar ones. He is glad the pictures have found a home at the Chinese Embassy.

As a Foreign Service officer, Richard traveled four or five times to China. He marveled at the changes, in contrast to the scenes in the photos, and said he was glad to learn that China will be featured in the upcoming tourism fair at the Walter Convention Center in Washington.

While it took a long time for Richard's mother to finally travel to China, the situation is quite different now. Every year, there are about 5 million people traveling between China and the US, averaging more than 13,000 people a day.

The 2016 China-US Tourism Year announced by President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama last September is aimed at giving a boost to bilateral exchange through tourism.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

The Bund and Huangpu River of Shanghai photos provided to China Daily

A caravan of camels outside the city walls of Beijing

Transplanting rice in China

The Great Wall of China

Marble Boat in the Summer Palace

Grinding soybeans with a hand mill

A picturesque thoroughfare in Hong Kong

(China Daily USA 02/22/2016 page6)