Photography: Shanghai Before the Fall

choi

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Holland Cotter, A Photographer Whose Beat Was the World. New York Times, Apr
. 9, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/arts/design/09cartier.html?scp=1&sq=photographer%20%201948%20shanghai&st=cse

Note:
(1) "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century." Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
, Apr. 11–June 28, 2010.
http://www.moma.org

(a) Besides the caption to a photo, the only sentence in the text of the NYT
report about China is, "In 1948 he was in Shanghai when citizens were
storming banks for gold in the last frantic days before Communist forces
arrived."
(b) MoMA is located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street,
between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

(2)
(a) Another museum also owns an original of the same photograph.

Shanghai, 1948
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2002.419

Please read the caption, particularly "In December 1948 * * * This
photograph captures the pandemonium incited by the currency crash of that
month, when the value of paper money plummeted and the Kuomintang decided to
distribute forty grams of gold per person."

(b) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, is an art
museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, Manhattan.
(c) Shanghai did not fall into Communists' hand until May 27, 1949.
(d) The decisive battle* that sealed fate of China's south (including that
of Shanghai) did not end while this photograph was taken.

* Called Huaihai Campaign 淮海戰役 in China and Battle of Hsupeng 徐蚌會戰
in Taiwan, which lasted from Nov. 6, 1948 to Jan. 10, 1949.


My comment:
(a) More than a token of Chinese often asked indignantly about gold--the
reserve in the form of ingots, as well as jewels KMT reportedly confiscated
from commoners--that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek supposedly looted from
Chinese mainland to brought to Taiwan.

"[F]orty grams of gold per person"? Perhaps the Generalissimo was not so
stingy after all. Of course, the moderation might be under the guidance of
Mr. Chiang Ching-kuo 蔣經國 who was effectively in charge of Shanghai during
the pertinent period.

(b) See also

金圓券
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%91%E5%9C%93%E5%88%B8
("當時臺灣省政府奉命依金圓券發行準備移交保管辦法，將臺糖總資產1億2千萬美元，
劃撥4,300萬元，將臺灣造紙總資產2,500萬美元，劃撥800萬元，使臺灣進一步被捲入
中國大陸惡化的經濟情勢中。而當時金圓券一元兌換臺幣1,835元亦明顯高估，中國大
陸流入臺灣套匯的活動，使臺灣面臨嚴重的惡性通貨膨脹壓力，經濟情況更趨惡化。")

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