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Weixin zhengfu zhixia zhi minzhong shenghuo (The life of the masses under the Reformed Government)
This series of unattributed photographs is taken from the Daminhui publication Xin Zhongguo (New China) 3.1 (January 1940). They are used here to present scenes of life under the rule of the Reformed Government (Weixin zhengfu), or RGROC, which was a “client regime” established in 1938. The RGROC was eventually amalgamated with Wang Jingwei’s RNG in March 1940. The top image is entitled “xian’ge bu chuo” (“studying never stops, even in times of strife”); the middle image is entitled “qiu shou fengdeng” (gathering the autumn harvest); the image at the bottom of the page is entitled “fuxing jianzhu” (renovating buildings). All three are typical images of the sort that the Daminhui promoted in the period between 1938 and 1940, but also display a clear influence from Manchukuo propaganda photography from earlier in the 1930s.
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清鄉表裡觀
一種以藝術的方式呈現歷經清鄉的村落，畫中農民在村牆內之日常。村牆外則是反抗份子餓死和對當地居民施暴。該圖片取自期刊《中國漫畫》2.1（1942年10月）。
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華北交通株式会社之警官參加訓練
一群男女皆有的中國警官在日佔北京參與華北交通株式会社之演習訓練，後方的城門為宣武門。
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Sangkum Reastr Niyum Exhibition, Sihanoukville
This photograph shows maps and models on display at the Sangkum Reastr Niyum exhibition in Sihanoukville. The exhibition is displayed on a wooden platform in a room structured by half open bamboo walls. There are two maps of Cambodia on the right-hand side. The first map, with arrows from two directions pointing to Saigon, reads: “Avant 1955 [date of the construction of Sihanoukville] l’axe économique du Cambodge était dirigé vers Saigon” [Before 1955, the economic axis of Cambodia was oriented to Saigon]. The second map, with thicker arrows pointing from different directions to Sihanoukville reads: “Désormais, l’économie du Cambodge a sa porte de sortie sur la mer” [Now, Cambodia’s economy has its own sea access]. The title of the map is: “Le grand avenir de Sihanoukville” [The great future of Sihanoukville]. The photograph is part of the collection that was donated to the National Archives of Cambodia from the Library of the Royal University of Fine Arts by Darryl Collins and Helen Grant Ross in 2003. The collection was used by Collins and Ross for their research into urbanisation. The images were probably originally used to mount the Sangkum Reastr Niyum Permanent Exhibition at the Exhibition Hall, Bassac area, Phnom Penh.
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Soldiers and foreign visitors with Heng Samrin and Pen Sovan
This picture shows a group of soldiers and foreign visitors (including journalists) surrounding Heng Samrin (chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Council of the PRK) and Pen Sovan (Secretary-General of the Kampuchea People’s Revolutionary Party). The presence of foreign press and visitors might indicate that the photograph was taken in Phnom Penh at the time of the People’s Revolutionary Tribunal that prosecuted in absentia the ‘Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique’ for genocidal crimes (15-19 August 1979). This photograph is part of the collection held by the Agence Khmère de Presse (AKP) and Cambodia’s Ministry of Information. This collection, which documents the early years of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea as photographed by the Vietnamese and a small team of Cambodian photographers, has not yet been classified or indexed.
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Win-Win Monument bas-relief
This photograph provided a view of bas-relief on the 117-metre-long engraved base of the Win-Win Monument. It depicts the defection of Khmer Rouge soldiers to the Cambodian government. The soldiers are represented donning the uniform of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and sitting in rows in ceremonies organised by government officials. The Win-Win Monument complex – photographed here in January 2020 – was inaugurated in December 2018 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the end of the post-Democratic Kampuchea civil war, with the final defection of the remaining Khmer Rouge factions, thanks to the DIFID policy (“Divide, Isolate, Finish, Integrate, Develop”) also known as the “Win Win” policy of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
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Replica of Koh Ker Tower, Win-Win Monument
This photograph shows a miniature reproduction of a red-brick tower at Koh Ker (former capital of the Angkorian Empire). A garden located on the northern side of the Win-Win Monument displays several miniature reproductions of iconic Khmer monuments. The Win-Win Monument complex – photographed here in January 2020 – was inaugurated in December 2018 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the end of the post-Democratic Kampuchea civil war, with the final defection of the remaining Khmer Rouge factions, thanks to the DIFID policy (“Divide, Isolate, Finish, Integrate, Develop”) also known as the “Win Win” policy of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
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Soldier helping with harvest
This staged and unattributed photographs shows a soldier of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS, also known as FUNSK) [Front or Renakse] helping a group of women to harvest crops. In the foreground, the soldier, with his rifle on his back, makes a large sheaf. He looks at the woman on his left. This photograph is part of the collection held by the Agence Khmère de Presse (AKP) and Cambodia’s Ministry of Information. This collection, which documents the early years of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea as photographed by the Vietnamese and a small team of Cambodian photographers, has not yet been classified or indexed.
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Win-Win Monument
The Win Win Monument obelisk (33 metres in height) – photographed here in January 2020 – is part of a monumental complex inaugurated in December 2018 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the end of the post-Democratic Kampuchea civil war, with the final defection of the remaining Khmer Rouge factions, thanks to the DIFID policy (“Divide, Isolate, Finish, Integrate, Develop”) also known as the “Win Win” policy of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
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Danish gymnastic [sic]
From a collection of staged photographs produced under the title “Life at a Girls School in Peking”, and produced at the Peking Jiyu Gakuen in Japanese-occupied Beijing. The original caption reads: “Some graduate of the Jiyu Gakuen were sent to Danmark [sic] in order to study the gymnastics, and now the Chinese girls are given the new type of physical training in China [sic]”. “Danish gymnastics” was a form of mass athletic exercise popular in Europe in the inter-war period.
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Furen xiang (Portrait of a woman)
This woodcut, by an artist called Ma Wu (probably the most prolific of Chinese popular artists openly active during the Japanese occupation), was reproduced in Zhonghua huabao (Chinese Pictorial) 2.2 (March 1943). The importance of the muke (woodcut) form to artistic practice in occupied China has been almost entirely overlooked in the literature. The muke form has hitherto been associated with the art of resistance in China, despite being an important part of “occupation” visual cultures as well.
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An di Dongjing; li dashiguan (Arriving safely in Tokyo; visiting the embassy)
This photomontage is taken from Huang Qingshu (ed), Wang zhuxi fang Ri jinian huakan (Special pictorial in commemoration of Chairman Wang’s visit to Japan) (Nanjing: Xuanchuanbu, 1941). It includes images of Wang Jingwei arriving in Tokyo during his 1941 visit to Japan, and specifically his visit to the RNG embassy in Tokyo.