Photography was introduced to China in the 1840s through the West's engagement in the Opium Wars and the subsequent reforms of Chinese statesmen. As a result, traditional modes of expression were dramatically transformed.Uncovered here is a captivating visual history of China during photography's first century. Chinese export painters learned and adapted the medium of photography by grafting the new technology onto traditional artistic conventions - employing both brush and shutter. Ultimately, both Chinese and Western photographers were witnesses to and agents of dynamic cultural change.The essays in this volume - which cover topics from the medium's evolution, commercialisation, and dissemination to how photography helped shape China's national image - shed new light on the birth of a medium.