만청시기의 대중매체가 그려 보인 자금성 －재현관행의 변화와 지속－

Abstract

In the first issue of the daily pictorial newspaper Tuhua ribao(圖畵日報) which was published in Shanghai from 1909 to 1910 for over a year, a realistic picture of Beijing’s Forbidden City was shown. This indeed was a ‘visual event’ which preceded the actual process of the Forbidden City being transformed into a historical site and a tourist attraction following the revolution and social change of early 20th century. Prior to this, visual representation of the Forbidden City in Ming and Qing era was restricted by customs that emphasize it’s sanctity and inviolability. These customs, of which the sacred cloud and mist played key role, were still intact in Dianshizhai huabao(點石齋畵報), the late 19th century Shanghai based pioneer of modern Chinese pictorial which overthrew many customs regarding visual representation. On the other hand pictures of the Forbidden City published in the Tuhua ribao which were unmistakably based on photographic depictions, is prominent in their parting with former customs and point of views. Photographic representation of the Forbidden City and elimination of the aura that traditional representation gave forth is clearly an event that foreshow the shift of times and ideas, and coming age of people’s rule. But at the same time, when we consider the bigger context on which the realistic-photographic representation lay, that the new form of representation is inevitably linked with the aggression of the Western powers and that certain techniques of representation is bound with certain point of gaze, it is an event that also preceded tough process of self-search and forecast of the future in the coming modern era, where the Chinese had no better choice but to reregulate themselves in terms of what are not ‘Chinese’.