Dai Fau, 1988

In 1988, the New York Chinatown History Project organized a show that displayed the photographs of a German-American photographer by the name of Arnold Genthe. He photographed San Francisco’s Chinatown prior to the 1906 earthquake that destroyed the city and led to the advent of paper sons and daughters. The exhibition was called The Streets of Dai Fau: Arnold Genthe’s Photographs of Old San Francisco’s Chinatown. “Dai Fau,” which literally translates to “big city” in Cantonese, is what the Chinese referred to San Francisco as prior to the earthquake.

While Genthe’s photos depicted the community as exotic and distinctly Chinese, this was accomplished by early photo manipulation. He would crop out any hints of Western influence or Westerners from his photographs in order to accentuate the foreignness of the community. He would also accomplish this by using misleading captions for his photographs. Even with these issues, his photographs are the only images of a pre-earthquake Chinatown.

纽约华埠历史研究社在1988年筹划了一个展示徳裔美籍摄影师Arnold Genthe(简德)摄影作品的展览。他拍摄了在1906年大地震前的旧金山华埠,那场地震摧毁了该市并导致了纸儿子、纸女儿的出现。该展名为”大埠街景:简德所摄旧金山华埠之图片 一八九五年至一九零六年”,"Dai Fau(大埠)"直译自广东话中的“大城市”,华人亦称之为地震前的旧金山。

虽然简德的照片经常把该社区描绘成一个富有异国风情且强调华人特色的地方,但这样的描绘经常由早期影像编辑技术所实现。为了强调社区的异国性,他会从自己的摄影作品中剪裁掉任何西方影响的元素或西洋人,亦会利用误导性的图解说明来达到这样的效果。虽然有着这样的改动,他的摄影作品仍是记录了地震前华埠的唯一影像。