Creating Heritage and the Mission Paul Pelliot: Early photographs of Dunhuang and their legacy

Cabos, Marine

Abstract

This article addresses the impact of photographs produced during campaigns of exploration in Northwest China during the transition period between the last decades of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. I propose to focus on an area that had experienced intense scrutiny, namely the oasis of Dunhuang. By scrutinizing the extensive photographic archive created during the French Mission Paul Pelliot (1906–08), this paper underlines the emergence of preservation and archaeological concerns, and the growing place of photography in academic disciplines like archaeology, while highlighting how these images interacted with local and international cultures. Addressing these questions is intended to help delineate the photographs’ visual grammar and to gauge their effect in (re)constituting China’s national heritage.

Citation

Cabos, M. (2018). Creating Heritage and the Mission Paul Pelliot: Early photographs of Dunhuang and their legacy. The Chinese Historical Review, 25(2), 97-117. https://doi.org/10.1080/1547402X.2018.1522817

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 17, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Nov 2, 2018
• Publication Date: Nov 2, 2018
• Deposit Date: Aug 17, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 17, 2018
• Journal: The Chinese Historical Review
• Print ISSN: 1547-402X
• Electronic ISSN: 2048-7827
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 97-117
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1547402X.2018.1522817
• Keywords: late imperial China, archaeology, cultural heritage, visual narrative, Paul Pelliot, Charles Nouette, Dunhuang