Art, Documentary, and Propaganda in Wartime China: The Photography of Sha Fei (1912-1950)

Exhibition Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - Saturday, March 27, 2010

Sha Fei (1920 – 1950), arguably the most prolific war photographer in the history of Chinese photography, expertly chronicled the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 – 1945. His photographs were also appropriated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as effective propaganda. But these photographs are fascinating for more than their quantity, high artistic values, and historical significance. They played an important role in shaping China’s new national identity─ Communist China─ prior to the official establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. The exhibition features a rich selection of Sha Fei’s photographs to illustrate the intersection of art, documentary, and propaganda and explore the relationship of photography and China’s construction of national identity.

Curator's Note
My scholarship has evolved around the aesthetics and the politics of visual representation, two subjects in which I have developed a strong interest since my undergraduate study at the University of Hong Kong in the late 1990s. This was a critical time during which Hong Kong’s sovereignty was transferring from the hands of the United Kingdom to that of the People’s Republic of China. In Hong Kong, the postcolonial atmosphere characterized my college years, shaping my identity as a distinctive kind of Chinese and directing my scholarly attention to the values of underrepresented subjects.

My interests in the aesthetics and the politics of visual representation eventually led to my ongoing dissertation on the Chinese wartime photographer Sha Fei (1912-1950) whose photographs combined the genre of fine art, documentary, and propaganda. I’m particularly drawn to the photographer’s life story that was shaped by the new, progressive thinking of his generation, the leftist politics, and the violence that China populations faced during the war years from 1937 to 1949. His photographs record chaos and sufferings as well as hopes. As an official photographer for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Sha Fei was required to produce war propaganda. Despite his pragmatic view of photography to promote the socialist ideals, his photographs, besides provoking enthusiasm, are filled with warmth and humanity, reflecting his genuine faith in the socialist society that the CCP had promised for China. 

About Eliza Ho
Born in Hong Kong, a former British colony now under China’s rule, Eliza grew up identifying herself as Hong Kong-nese. After receiving her BA at the University of Hong Kong, Eliza came to The Ohio State University (OSU) for her graduate work in the field of Art History in 2000. Currently, she is writing her dissertation on a Chinese photographer Sha Fei (1912-1950) who is best known for his work taken in the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 for the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2008, Eliza was awarded with a Presidential Fellowship from OSU Graduate program. For her dissertation fieldwork, she has received financial supports from different academic units of OSU, including The Mershon Center for International Security Studies, College of the Arts, and the History of Art Department. She is one of the contributors of the Encyclopedia of Modern China (forthcoming 2009), writing on topics concerning with modern Chinese art and the history of Chinese photography. Her scholarship on Sha Fei has also appeared in Chinese-language publications. In 2009, Eliza was invited to present at the workshop The Role of Photography in Shaping China’s Image 1860-1945 organized by the Art History Department of Northwestern University. Later this year in October, she will participate in the symposium China Seen by the Chinese: Documentary Photography, 1951–2003 that will be held at the Princeton University.