The spread of postcards in China during the 1860s was primarily driven by a growing Western market looking for images of exotic Eastern culture. Chinese postcards from the mid-19th century typically depicted places that would have been visited by outsiders, like treaty ports or colonial outposts including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Hankou, and Hong Kong. These also happened to be cities where the postcard-printing industry was just...Continue Reading