College of East Asian Studies

An Old Sichuan Pagoda, George Neumann, digital print from lantern slide

George and Louisa Neumann arrived in China in 1911, just after the fall of the Qing Dynasty and returned home in 1924 as Sichuan descended into social chaos. Dean of the Faculty of Religion at West China Union University in Chengdu, Neumann was in a unique position to document the intersection of the everyday life of the Chinese with the privileged life of foreigners. This is the first exhibition of images made from Wesleyan graduate George Neumann’s luminous hand tinted photographs, a vision of the encounter of Methodist, Daoist, Buddhist and folk spirituality in the Chengdu basin in the early part of the twentieth century.

Opening and Gallery Talk with Center Curator Patrick Dowdey