ALONG CHINA’S COAST: DEZSŐ BOZÓKY'S TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY 1908–1909

The exhibition is now extended to February 9, 2020.

Following the success of UMAG’s 2016 exhibition Pictures of the Past: Hungarian Photographer Dezső Bozóky in Hong Kong, the Museum is now presenting a larger group of photographs that Dezső Bozóky took along China’s coast from 1908–1909. A naval officer with the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Bozóky first left Hong Kong for Canton before travelling to Fujian province, Shanghai and Beijing, documenting the countryside and cities, along with their inhabitants.

The photographer’s interest in nature and architecture and, above all, the Qing dynasty street scenes and people he met, continue to transmit the excitement and wonder of this early European traveler in a country and culture so far from his own. UMAG’s 2019 exhibition records an abundance of impressions from areas of China that have undergone phenomenal amounts of social and economic change.

For 70 of the years since Bozóky’s journey along China’s coast, Hungary has had a diplomatic representation in Hong Kong—a history that our project celebrates with this exhibition.