Untitled (Hong Kong, St. John’s Cathedral, from the Parade Ground, H.M. Regiment on Parade)

1870

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Untitled (Hong Kong, St. John’s Cathedral, from the Parade Ground, H.M. Regiment on Parade) is a 1870 by Lai Fong (Afong Studio), a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Lai Fong (Afong Studio)
When & what style?: 1870 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see British soldiers marching in front of a stone church in Hong Kong. The sky is bright, the uniforms crisp, and the cathedral looms above the parade ground. Most Chinese photo studios at the time took portraits for Westerners. Lai Fong instead sold views of China—competing with European photographers who usually controlled that market. This image shows both the church and the army, two ways the British Empire kept order in its colonies. To see more of Hong Kong under British rule, look up *subject: england, 19th century*.

The story of this work

Overview

Since the customers for landscape photographs were mostly Westerners, most Chinese studios focused on portraiture. Lai Fong, however, offered views of China, which set him in competition with European photographers who had monopolized that market. Here, soldiers from the Queen’s Regiment march on the Parade Ground, which sits below the Anglican St. John’s Cathedral. The picture presents two major organs of social control used by the British Empire in its colonies: the church and the military.