Related stories

Services Highlighted at Expat Show Beijing Alexandre Fauvet talks about Business Beijing Rene S. Schmitt talks about Business Beijing Tao Jingzhou talks about Business Beijing Lincoln Venancio talks about Business Beijing

Looking at Beijing Through a Lens

Beijingers have long relied upon Dabei Photo Studio to make photographic records of the important events in their lives. Along the way, Beijing's oldest photo studio has captured contemporary moments in the city's history that remain as signposts of its transformation into a modern world metropolis. To browse these photos is to re-discover of the life of China's capital city and its people through the ages. The images make it possible to connect to Beijing's past and give meaning to its future.

Photographs and their keepers serve as history's memory banks, capturing contemporary moments and freezing them for all time.

In the case of Beijing, one of the most important stewards of its photographic legacy is the 85-year-old Dabei Photo Studio, the oldest photo studio in Beijing and one of Beijing's important Time Honoured Brands (laozihao).

The photo studio has been a part of the lives of the people of Beijing since 1921, when it opened in the Qianmen area, south of Tian'anmen Square. It has recorded the city's transformation from an inward-looking walled city to a dynamic international metropolis that will host the 2008 Olympic Games. The photographers of the Dabei Photo Studio have captured this transition in the lives and dress of the people of Beijing, photographing the high and low, from officials to people on the street, from the Forbidden City and Zhongnanhai (the centre of China's government) to its humble hutong and siheyuan. And, as a laozihao it has changed with the times, too.

After Chairman Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China from the rostrum at Tian'anmen Square in October 1949, fulfilling a dream of the Chinese people, the Square and its environs became a favourite haunt of photographers and vacationers from across China and around the world.

Huang Zengfan, a photographer for Dabei Photo Studio, now retired, said the Photo Studio began taking photos with Tian'anmen Square as a backdrop in 1958, but the studio is also famed for its images of Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of China's central authorities, and the Great Hall of People; and conferences and meetings involving political leaders and foreign guests. Many significant moments in Chinese history have been preserved in what have become old, yellowed photos over the past 50 years.

For laobaixing (common people), the studio was a place where they could discover their sparkling personalities, record their lives in accord with different ages and present themselves to the truth of the results of camera and lens.

Zhao Yanchen, the founder of Dabei Photo Studio, set a standard for the studio, sticking to a principle of focusing on photo quality and meeting the needs of his customers. Peking Opera was a great hit in 1930s so the Dabei Photo Studio prepared costumes featured in Peking Opera roles for customers to dress up and perform in front of the camera. Many old Beijingers still keep those photos as a kind of visual diary, recalling their old days. During the 1960s, the Dabei Photo Studio was a place to record big events in family lives such as weddings, newborns and family reunions, but especially family gatherings during traditional festivals.

Photography came to China more than 160 years ago, and was met by a people who were understandably shy and somewhat reluctant to subject themselves to the prying eye of the camera lens. Nowadays, the young have more than come to grips with imaging via photography using cutting-edged digital and film cameras, mobile phones, scanners and printers. For them, it is hard to imagine photography of their grandparents' generation, when cameras were bulky and film was slow, where lenses were crude and shutters were operated manually. Flash photography came in the form of a smoky, fiery flash-in-the-pan, now found only in early movies.

The photographers of Dabei Photo Studio, endowed with the rich experience and professional skills that come with time, have adapted well to the demands of new times. They work hard to ensure that the personalities of their subjects shine forth in the studio and before the camera, including children. The studio’s photographers will take the time necessary to bring out a child's personality and will use everything from toys and costume changes to elaborate backgrounds to achieve their creative goals. Without the extra effort, the children's responses will seem artificial and emotionally remote, devoid of their real personalities.

With Beijing's physical transformation, the ubiquitous Chinese character 拆 (chai meaning "demolish") can be found painted on the walls in many areas, marking the condemnation of housing considered unsuitable for human habitation or the city's needs in the modern era. An old personality is giving way to a new one, but the old way of life will live on in Dabei's photos of this truly historic city. Their black-and white photos, which bear the stamp of the life of the city, will give the people, especially the young generation, a concrete record of the city's ups and downs, and of the many changes that have taken place.

As with other laozihao, updating and maintaining the values of the Dabei Photo Studio brand is now an important consideration for the studio's leaders. It must keep pace with a rapidly changing society and often short-lived trends in consumer tastes and lifestyles. Maintaining and upgrading an appropriate brand identity, or mining the core values of its brand are very important for the studio's future. So the staff of the Dabei Photo Studio, while adopting advanced photographic equipment and skills, has taken the initiative to learn more about the market they operate in and the real needs of their customers. They are adopting strategies considered essential to hold their own in completion, whether at home or abroad. For instance, Dabei Photo Studio took part in the China's first Wedding Expo that took place in Beijing on February 25, 2005. International trends in wedding costumes, Chinese wedding customs and marriage-related services were featured. The studio is also increasing its advertising presence in the market.

Numerous trendy and foreign-invested photo studios are popping up in Beijing. The difference with Dabei Photo Studio is its proven track record in the market and its status as a Time Honoured Brand. Profitability is a key consideration in the modern Beijing business world, but Dabei offers more, a representation of the past, a living diary of the city and its culture and the authentic lives of Beijing's people, whether past, present or future.