History in Images

"This is an extremely interesting and useful collection of essays presenting totally new interpretations of images in photography and cinema in twentieth-century China. Essays herein demonstrate how, with proper analysis, significant information about material culture can be obtained from visual images. These essays in particular validate the notion that visual images are discrete sources of information and should not be relegated to mere illustrations to a written text."—Ellen Johnston Laing, University of Michigan

"As I read the manuscript, I thought, 'If a picture is worth a thousand words, these words about pictures are also highly illuminating. Bringing attention to the visual within history and as a means of thinking about history adds a fresh and artful dimension to the study of Republican China.' Indeed, there is much to learn and to think with in the chapters that make up this volume."—Timothy B. Weston, University of Colorado at Boulder

"This volume raises an important question that has not been addressed systematically be scholars: how can historians utilize more productively visual images produced through modern technologies, specifically, photographs and movies? Many chapters in this volume make laudable efforts to examine the nature of such materials and their benefits and limitations for historical research; their reflections on the methodologies historians can adopt to utilize such materials will be helpful to many in the field."—Madeleine Yue Dong, University of Washington