Postcards Past: A Fresh Look at an Ancient City

There are many who claim to be Old China Hands, but none can match the claim of Felicitas Titus, who was raised in the Hankow (Wuhan) foreign concession, studied in Beijing during Japan’s WWII occupation, and worked in the country until 1949. Her historic and unparalleled collection of 355 black-and-white and hand-tinted postcards give us all insight into the capital’s past.

Old Beijing: Postcards From the Imperial City is divided into 25 chapters, which cover well-known areas such as the Legation Quarter and the Drum and Bell Towers, as well as the less familiar – Peking Union Medical College and “luxury hotels for foreigners.” Beyond the history lesson of buildings and people long gone, however, is a reminder of a much more recent disappearance – the lost art of postcard writing.

In an age where FaceTime has replaced actual face time, iPhones have turned us all into photographers, and tweets are broadcast to the entire world, the days of buying a card with a photo on it, writing down a few sentences about where you are, and then posting it in a box to be delivered halfway around the world, is a rather quaint – if romantic – idea.

However, as the foreword to Old Beijing points out: “This book ... will help future generations understand the pleasure and excitement caused by the sending and receiving of a few words scribbled on a small, bright picture from a faraway place.”

This remarkable collection helps remind us of the magical moment when we first watched the sun set over the Forbidden City, strolled through the Long Corridor at the Summer Palace, and climbed the Great Wall. It turns us all into tourists again.

Old Beijing: Postcards From the Imperial City is available at Page One.

Click here to see the Beijinger August issue in full.