A ceremony for the photo exhibition Path to Harmony: The United States and China, 1784-1979 was held on Nov 21 at Jinling Library in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
The exhibition was jointly sponsored by the organization committee of the World Famous City “Nanjing Week” and the US Consulate General in Shanghai, and organized by Jinling Library. A total of 70 China-US-related photos, taken between 1784 and 1979, are being showcased at the exhibition.
These photos cover many sectors such as education, commerce, culture, science, sports and technology, including some Nanjing-related ones. For example, in 1915 Ginling University in Nanjing and Smith College in the US state of Massachusetts jointly established Ginling College, China’s first higher education college for female students, and a photo named “Ginling College’s Outdoor Biology Class” shows a scene where female students are attending a biology class. Another one is a group photo of John Dewey (1859 – 1952), an American philosopher and educator, and his wife, taken in front of the former Jiangsu Provincial Education Department when they came to China at the invitation of Hu Shi and Tao Xingzhi, both of whom were well-known Chinese scholars and educators.
Consul General Sean B. Stein of the US Consulate General in Shanghai said that the 70 photos reflect the daily lives of American and Chinese people, including some interesting scenes of Americans learning to play Chinese mahjong, cook Chinese food and speak Chinese dozens of years ago.
Stein explained that China’s Nanjing had contacts with the US as early as over a century ago. Several schools and hospitals in Nanjing had established exchange and cooperative relationships with US schools and hospitals more than one hundred years ago, he said.
The one-month-long photo exhibition is being held at the exhibition hall on the first floor of Jinling Library.
