Page 140 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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roos boek 129-192 d

by the foreigners they were always referred to
as chop-boats. 88

The range of boats was huge: transport boats
for all kinds of trade and people, floating shops,
day- and night ferries, duck boats, fishing boats,
river cruisers for longer distances, seaworthy
junks, boats for ‘ladies of pleasure’ (so-called
flower boats) and those of their pimps, vessels
with music- and theatre companies, etc. After
arriving in the Pearl River delta, and once their 139
ship had anchored off Whampoa, Westerners
were allowed to come up to Canton on ‘liberty Fig. 4.48. Theatre
days’. 89 These strictly rationed trips to the city
scene (from set of 3),
were invariably accompanied by days of
anonymous,
planning how to spend money on, among other watercolour on pith
things, “ricepaper [sic] paintings [...].” 90 It was
paper, 19th century,
inevitable that such a subject would make it
32.5 x 22.5 cm,
home in the form of a souvenir; boats were
Wereldmuseum
omnipresent. There has long been a tendency to
Rotterdam,
use these images now as important source
inv.no. 4126-1.
material for understanding water transport and
commercial activities in Guangdong province
Fig. 4.49. Sword
during the reign of the Qing rulers. But, as is
dancers (from set of 4),
known today, it is very much recommended to
anonymous,
not just consider products of visual culture to
watercolour on pith
reconstruct history, but include the study of
paper, 19th century,
- Local vessels written sources too. There are comparable,
22 x 14 cm,
Another daily and vitally important subject for practically identical boat albums in all
Tropenmuseum/
visitors and residents of eighteenth- and ethnographic museums of the Netherlands and
Nationaal Museum van
nineteenth-century Canton was boats. Local in the collection of the Maritime Museum Wereldculturen,
vessels surrounded Western merchants who did Rotterdam. 91 Figures 4.52.a. to 4.52.d. and
inv.no. TM-54-40-A.
business in Canton. Lord George Macartney, the 3.11. show some examples.
first British ambassador, on a diplomatic mission It is believed that, in addition to the historical
Fig. 4.50. Chinese
to the imperial court, remarked during his stay documents from that time, this daily-life-in-
puppet player,
in Canton in 1793 that: Canton genre could offer access to aspects of an
anonymous,
informal economy, about which official sources
watercolour on paper,
[t]he river of Canton is quite covered with boats
n.y., 21 x 12.5 cm,
and vessels of various sorts and sizes, all, even
Museum Volkenkunde/
the very smallest, constantly and thickly Nationaal Museum van
inhabited. 87
Wereldculturen,
inv.no. RV-02-841.
Some decennia later, while staying in Canton in
the years 1825-1844, Hunter wrote, that:
Fig. 4.51. Theatre scene,
anonymous,
[t]he boats in which they conveyed were of a
watercolour on pith
peculiar build, with circular decks and sides,
paper (loose sheet),
and from their resemblance to a melon they
19th century,
were called ‘watermelons’ by the Chinese, but
31 x 23.5 cm,
Wereldmuseum
---
Rotterdam,
87 Macartney 1793, quoted by Ching in Wilson & Liu (eds.) 2003, 50.
inv.no. 29476-3.
88 Hunter 1882, 34-35.
89 I came across the term ‘liberty days’ in Conner 2009, 66. See also Hunter 1911, 3.
90 Hunter 1882, quoted in Conner 2009, 66.
91 Tropenmuseum: inv.no. A-7780e; Museum Volkenkunde: inv.nos. 328-4a to 4l, 2133-2a to 2l and 2133-3a to 3l.
Wereldmuseum Rotterdam: inv.no. 29476-1; Maritime Museum Rotterdam: inv.nos. P4411, P4412, P4413 to P4422,
and P4424 to P4426.