Title: Hong Kong, Junk Through The Porthole
Year: 1932/1937
Location: Hong Kong, China
Photographer: Albert E. Kane
Still on the Water
As Albert Kane rode the waves inside the harbor of Hong Kong, he was given the rare opportunity to capture the evolution of Asian history. The silhouetted junk that drifted across the porthole from which Kane took his picture was caught in a timeless image both revealing and nostalgic. What makes this image particularly unique is the fact that both past, present, and future are contained within a single picture. At first glance, Kane’s photograph seems nothing more than a still taken by a tourist. A more in-depth interpretation, however, reveals how Kane’s image tells an important story regarding the changes taking place in China at the time. Although the focus of the picture is the junk, analyzing the background and supplementary elements in the photograph reflects the fusion of traditional Chinese culture and modern industry.
The Japanese occupation of Manchuria starting in 1931 represented the dawn of Japanese colonialism and a movement towards modernization in China (Young, 1998). This crucial era in the history of East Asia saw military aggression and economic development in the northern part of China. However, much of the rest of China was caught up in recession and political violence as a result of the Nationalist’s effort to expel the Chinese communists (Rogoff, 2017). It seems that Kane’s picture managed to capture the duality between the move toward modernity and the chains of China’s past. In the picture, nearby the junk, a different style of sailing ship can be seen, likely an oil or coal-powered vessel. This second ship symbolizes the future of China’s economic modernization and the replacement of the old with the new. Although the Chinese economy was suffering greatly through the 1930s, it was precisely due to this suffering that the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong, was able to establish a rural following (Rogoff, 2017). The failure to industrialize the agricultural sector in China and the power divide between rural peasants and city-dwelling elites fostered a ripe environment for a change in regime (Rogoff, 2017). Thus the oil ship in the image is rather an element that foreshadows the future of China’s economic and global power, rather than an indication of China’s economic state at the time of the picture. The sprawling city that can be seen faintly behind the junk furthers this retrospective notion.
The junk, the focal point of the photograph, is conversely a symbol of persistent Chinese tradition in the face of a changing global stage. Dating back many centuries before the picture was taken, junks were a seafaring marvel that allowed for both trade and naval combat (Hornell, 2013). By the 1930s, junks had become more of a symbol of Hong Kong than a staple transportation system (Gao, 2016). Yet, as Kane captured, junks were and still are an important part of Chinese culture. The waning of the era of junk boat-based trade and the advent of oil-powered ships illustrates the synthesis of tradition and development which has become an integral part of Chinese culture.
It is due to the nature of the image itself that this synthesis presents itself to the onlooker. The narrow view from the porthole obliges the viewer to focus their attention on the boats in the harbor, excluding nearly all other elements. As the eyes fall from on the junk, images of Chinese sailors under red cloth sails spring into the mind. Continuing to stare through the porthole then places the focal point on the metal ship entering the frame. In symbolic fashion, the oil ship is replacing the junk as the center of the image. Finally, the gaze is widened to reveal the background of Hong Kong, fighting its way through the haze to be seen. Thus the analysis is complete and the viewer is left to determine the greater meaning of the picture for themself. Although surely each individual would look upon the still boats with their own ideas of meaning, it seems evident that, unbeknownst to him, Kane photographed two important elements of Chinese history and culture.
The title for this analysis, “Still on the Water”, is a play on words of sorts, albeit not a very clever one. However, it correctly captures the feelings of the picture. Firstly, the picture is literally a still image of boats on the water, so “Still on the Water” seemed fitting. Secondly, the junk is “still” on the water, or in other words, continues to float in the harbor of Hong Kong as a beacon of history. Lastly, and most importantly, the junk is “still” as in motionless. Although the oil ship clearly is in motion in the photograph, no such indication of movement is given for the junk. The motionlessness of the junk contrasted with the motion of the oil ship represents the passing of time and the oncoming of the future, while the past remains an ever-important part of history and culture. Thus the junk remains immobilized by time while the future presses on.
Works Cited
Gao, S. (2016, October 16). A brief history of the Chinese junk. Culture Trip. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/hong-kong/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-chinese-junk/
Hornell, J. (2013). The origin of the junk and Sampan. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00253359.1934.10655762?journalCode=rmir20
Young, L. (1998). Japan’s total empire. Google Books. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YjW41KFGw04C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=japan%2Bmanchuria&ots=ulmmNC_sLv&sig=JAGaAvYss8iWFdh_0BABg2ymmgU#v=onepage&q&f=false
Rogoff, S. (2017). 1930s China. USM Open Source History Text: The World at War: World History 1914-1945. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usm-open-source-history-text-the-world-at-war-world-history-1914-1945/1930s-china
