Old photos from the late Qing Dynasty: very rare giants and dwarfs, who were dragged around the world to perform

Rural giants photographed by Morrison, a reporter stationed in China during the late Qing Dynasty. This article selects 10 old photos that record images of giants and dwarfs in the late Qing Dynasty, which are very rare. After more than 100 years, we are still lucky enough to see these magical characters. It is really rare.

In Shanghai, a 2.26-meter-tall giant took photos with dwarfs and normal people. Because these people have an ordinary appearance and are eye-catching, they are often hired as entertainers by circuses at home and abroad. For example, the famous American B.T. Barnum Circus has poached people in China.

This dwarf performs acrobatics. People are curious, and people with extraordinary appearances just meet everyone's needs. Not to mention the late Qing Dynasty when there were fewer entertainment activities, even now when our spare time life is exciting, don’t we also like to see those strange people?

In 1879, a giant of the late Qing Dynasty left no name. Please note that he is wearing the clothes of a Qing Dynasty official and has patches on his chest, but this does not mean that he is an official, but that he is a performance costume prepared by foreigners to make him more Chinese. In the late Qing Dynasty, many people with abnormal heights were sent to Europe and the United States to participate in tours.

Zhan Shichai, who is about 2.48 meters tall, took a photo with the dwarf. Zhan Shichai was born in 1841 in Wuyuan County, Anhui Province (now part of Jiangxi). His family was full of tall people and was known as the "home of elders". He once worked in Shanghai, and was later hired by Americans with a large sum of money to perform around the world. He later became a British citizen and died in England in his later years.

The dwarf Che Mah (transliteration, English name is Che Mah) in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province in the late Qing Dynasty. Chema was born in 1838 and is about 71 centimeters tall. She was discovered by a talent scout from the B.T. Barnum Circus in the United States, and then became a juggler and performed all over the world. Someone asked him: "How does it feel to be the shortest man in the world?" He replied: "I don't know how it is different from other people. Men do not win respect by height, but by wisdom and knowledge."

In 1894, Chang Yanming (transliteration), a soldier of the Chief Envoy of Yunnan, was 2.41 meters tall. The personal soldiers are the green battalion troops personally supervised by the chief envoy, that is, their own guards. It would be really cool to take such a soldier who is over 2 meters tall to the countryside.

In 1900, the Jiangsu giant took a photo with American photographer James Licarton.

In the summer of 1911, a dwarf selling roast duck in Chengdu.

A postcard from the late Qing Dynasty. The photo shows a giant of the Qing Dynasty posing with foreigners, with the stamp "Commemorative of Visiting the Beijing Pavilion" stamped on it. It can be speculated that this photo was taken by the Qing Dynasty at a certain world expo abroad.