Massey-Stewart - ‘Glimpse at China’

This is a pair of fascinating photographs taken in China in 1964 by the well-known English photographer and writer John Massey-Stewart, renowned especially for his reports and books on Russia, including his book comparing Chinese communism and Russian communism, “Behind the Curtains--Bamboo and Iron.”

These two images are part of a high-profile photo essay dated exactly 1964, entitled “A new glimpse at China,” i.e., “a new look at China,” about Mao Zedong’s “New China.” Massey-Stewart envisaged a great nation with a “new course” that seemed to promise much in the photographer’s eyes, a nation that also sought new talks and new parallel paths with the Soviet Union, which Massey-Stewart knew well.

The first of the two photos depicts a display window of a shoe shop, and the second the scene of a Chinese opera performed in Hangchow (Hangzhou) entitled “The fallen from the clouds—embroidered shoe.”

Both photographs feature a very interesting description of the era, in English, typed and attached to the photos themselves.

Excellent overall condition, dimensions 25.4x20.6 cm.