China in Transition
    Pictures of life in China during the transition from the last dynasty to the modern world.
 Stan Neumann's Home Page
In 1908, George Bradford Neumann travelled to Chengdu, China to help with the establishment of West China Union University (WCUU). They started during the final years of the Qing dynasty, the last of the Chinese Dynasties. When the revolution broke out in 1911, the westerners were evacuated to the Jiansu province on the coast, where George helped to organize relief for the famine underway in that region. With the advent of the Republic of China, and some small degree of stability, they returned to Chengdu in 1912, and stayed until 1924 (except for a year sabbatical in the US from 1915-1916). One of the valuable things that George brought back was a collection of hand-colored glass slide photographs capturing a cross section of life in China during a particularly momentous period - the transition from the classical world of the dynasties to the modern world.
Pictures of Daily Life      Portaits and Group Pictures      Images of the Campus     Images of the Region     Family-oriented pictures     

Click on the thumbnail images for a full-size image.
Group portait in front of school Another group portrait in front of the school
Students Students
Chinese couple Western Couple, probably Joseph Beech (the primary founder of the school) and his wife.
A group of teachers A group of older students
An individual.

Much of the commentary is courtesy Patrick Dowdey, of the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University and was prepared for an exhibition of these pictures at the Center in 2010.

Please mail comments, corrections or suggestions to Stan (at) StanNeumann.com

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