AN EXTENSIVE COLLECTION OF BLACK AND WHITE MAGIC LANTERN SLIDES OF CHINA BETWEEN 1921 AND 1927 IN FOUR WOODEN BOXES TOGETHER WITH THE ORIGINAL MAGIC LANTERN BY JOHAN WILHELM SCHOTMAN (1892-1976)

The collection consists of 256 slides of which 250 are numbered and classified

(14 glass slides damaged):
 

1. I  Peking (1-50)

2. II  Treaty Harbours (51-73)

3. III  Haitsjow (74-100)

4. IV  Geography (101-112)

5. V  Houses and buildings (113-141)

6. VI  Means of transport (142-150)

7. VII  Island of Mên-Li-Shan (151-173)

8. VIII  Population (174-196)

9. IX  Spiritual movements (197-234)

10. X  Shady side (235-241)

11. XI  Various subjects (242-250)

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Glass slides: 8.2 x 8.2 cm

 

Note:

After the Boxer uprising of 1900, there was much interest in the West for images of China. Among the Dutch who took photographs of China was A.C. van Citters who between 1903 and 1908 made over 200 glass plate images mainly of architectural sites, many showing the damage done by Western and Japanese soldiers during the Boxer uprising. Also, C.E. Le Munyon took about 60 photographies of social life in Beijing between 1903 and 1937 and J.J.L.Duyvendak, while being a translator for
the Dutch embassy in Beijing between 1912 and 1918, collected and made many photographs of China. All of these collections are now in the Ethnographic Museum in Leiden. As the photographs in the Museum in Leiden, the current collection is of great cultural and historical significance as it provides a picture of the mainly pre-industrial age of the Chinese countryside at the start of the last century. Schotman was sent to China by the Dutch-Chinese Syndicat and stayed there between 1921 and 1927. As a medical doctor Schotman was first employed at the island of Xi Lian Dao, later in Haizhou. He was also involved, as a doctor, in the construction of the Lung Hai railway, a joined Dutch-Belgian enterprise.

About his years in China he wrote the trilogy Het Vermolmde Boeddhabeeld, een reis naar de verborgenheden ener vreemde werkelijkheid (P.N. van Kampen, Amsterdam, 1927, 1929 and 1930). Living in China and his close contact with Chinese workers as a medical doctor made Schotman one of the most important Dutch writers on China in the twenties and thirties. His analysis of China and the Chinese culture was rather psychological, Freudian and Jungian. In 1927 the civil war and the communist revolution eventually forced Schotman together with most of the Westerners to leave the country. Schotman was a man of many talents; he studied medicine and psychology in Leiden, translated from Latin De Vertroosting der Wijsbegeerte (The Consolation of Philosophy) by Boethius, learned to speak Chinese, published several books on China and Chinese poetry, wrote reviews, translated many books from English, among them Myths and legends of China by Edwards Chalmers Werner, was a beekeeper and translated A manual of beekeeping for English-speaking beekeepers by E.B. Wedmore, established himself as a neurologist in Gouda in 1937 and was appointed director of the Provincial Historical Museum in Zwolle in 1954.

Schotman gave many lectures on China showing his magic lantern slides for audiences in the Netherlands and Belgium.