From the invention of photography technology in the 18th century to the time just before the development of digital technology in the 21st century, taking photo was a very extravagant thing for Chinese people. Because of the scarcity of film, most of the photos that Chinese people took are personal or family portraits, which are used as souvenirs, but there are very few photos reflecting different sectors of society. Thanks to the photos taken by some of the early Western photographers, such as Sidney Gambo, that we could see the real living conditions and social status of the Chinese working people at that time more directly. Zhenjing Traditional Woodwork Museum collects all kinds of woodworking photography, and we hope this exhibition can reflect the hard work and efforts of the Chinese people.
The woodworkers were chiseling holes in the timber.
A child was sawing wood with a carpentry's saw.
The young intellectuals in the countryside were doing woodworking.
The master was teaching his apprentices the carpentry skills.
Scene of carpentry work in northern Jiangsu Province.
Students were learning woodworking skills at school.
The carpenters were working in a wood processing factory.
Illustration of a planing child in a woodworking themed calendar.
Group photo of workers from No.602 Logging Factory of the Forest Industry Bureau in 1957 in Shimian County, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province.
Working scene of workers in Fuzhou Lumber Yard.
Equipment and workers of Fuzhou Lumber Yard on the wooden raft.
Woodworkers were sawing large pieces of wood outdoors.
In 1958, a three-story building without steel, cement and bricks appeared in Harbin.
Students were learning how to saw wood.
Two men were sawing wood in front of Wenshengxing Coal Mine in Tianjin.
After cutting down the timber, woodworkers of the Qing Dynasty carried them down from the mountain.
An eight-level woodworking master was teaching woodworking knowledge to the apprentices.
Two men were pulling a large saw to cut wood.
The masters of the woodworking repair workshop were repairing the door frame.
Paper cutting of two children driving nails made by the art group of Tianjin No.59 Middle School.
Three comrades set up tents in the field to cut and saw wood.
Poster of female carpenters criticizing Liu Shaoqi's idea of "women's uselessness".
The lumberjacks in a forestry farm in the Jianghua Yao Autonomous County of Hunan Province are full of revolutionary pride and ready to fight for a greater future.
The young intellectuals who settled down in a production brigade were logging outside.
Li Ruihuan (front right), a national model worker and director of the Beijing Construction and Wood Factory Reform Committee, who is known as "Luban of the modern time", created the "simple woodworking calculation method" more than ten years ago. Since the Cultural Revolution, he and the general public had continued to carry out technological innovative activities, making a variety of equipment and tools for unloading wood, which was welcomed by workers.
Ma Changjia (second from the right), a retired carpenter and Communist Party member in Shenyang Bridge Factory of Liaoning Province, declined the high salary of 150 yuan per month from a contractor team and took the initiative to run a collective enterprise of educated youth to teach young workers skills, which was praised by the people. Ma Changjia is a level 7 woodworker who not only can direct the construction of civil buildings, but is also good at measuring and drawing.
Xu Xiaoying, a young intellectual in Hangzhou, has grown up to be a lumberjack who can use chainsaw.
Woodworker was sawing boards with a large frame saw.
"People are in the rain, aiming at one side." Labor's Day souvenir in Shenhe Woodworking Machinery Factory.
A male carpenter is teaching woodworking skills to a female carpenter.
A carpenter was pushing the circular saw.
Woodworkers were going through streets and alleys to repair furniture for people.
The soldiers from "The Good Eighth Company of Nanjing Road" (“南京路上好八连”) were helping the "little red soldiers" (红小兵) of Shanghai Tianjin Road Primary School set up a woodworking group to teach them the spirit of "leading a plain, hardworking life" and to enhance their ability to resist the corrosive influence of bourgeois ideology.
