William Saunders, Photographer of Shanghai Customs

Around 1870, William Saunders (1832–1892), an English commercial photographer in Shanghai, produced a set of fifty photographs which together re‐created many scenes of local life, envisioned through the eyes of a Westerner. Beside those illustrating numerous small trades and occupations, the best‐known image showed a staged scene of decapitation. This essay looks at how the series was received and circulated, and how this outstanding photography contributed, directly and as a model for other photographers, to create for the West a new image of Chinese people and their customs. This essay will also look at how the images were used and published over the following decades to become iconic resources on Shanghai during China’s late imperial period and beyond.