Why are so many people in China with bitter gourd faces in the photos a hundred years ago?

At that time, people had an instinctive rejection of cameras, which was caused by camera technology and pixel problems.

I think "bitter gourd face" is the embarrassment of facing strange objects (cameras) and strangers (photographers). Who wouldn't want to leave the most beautiful side if they knew that this expression would be frozen forever and seen by others?

A hundred years ago, many places were underdeveloped and many people lived a hard, heavy and numb life. Psychologically, because of religion, superstition and fear, I can't face the camera calmly.

There is a process to accept photography technology. Whether in Europe or China, photography technology has been associated with "witchcraft" as soon as it came into being, and there is a saying that photography can capture people's souls in many places.

No matter how the times develop, people in closed communities should have the same psychological reaction to photography as in the early days.

Most people first came into contact with old photos in modern history textbooks and TV programs, mainly as a picture of "a history full of blood and tears and humiliation", so it is not surprising to leave the stereotype that "China people were all bitter gourd faces a hundred years ago".

Of course, the imagination of China people a hundred years ago was only one aspect, but in fact it was not all bitter gourd faces.

In the 1920s, in Shanghai, boat people, the lowest social stratum, could also have the purest smile.

In this album, more than 200 photos recorded the lives of ordinary people in Kunming, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other places in the late Anti-Japanese War. The most important thing is that most of them are colorful Color! Yes!

This also constantly reminds us that our life is colorful, so is their life, and so is the life in those black and white photos.