Shanghai In Images: A Look Back
Twenty-five years ago—almost to the day—Shanghai in Images took off. With seed funding from the France-Berkeley Fund, my comrade-in-idea(l)s, Yeh Wen-hsin, and I launched the first online database of Chinese historical photographs with two main goals in mind: to advocate for the use of visual sources in historical research and to share historical resources on the Internet.
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The initial impetus for the project was a collection of historical photographs of Shanghai that I had been gathering since the mid-1980s, primarily to document and “visualize” the city’s past and to help contextualize information otherwise derived from textual archives. What had begun almost as a personal hobby had gradually evolved into a carefully curated collection of photographs, stored in boxes. While this ensured their safekeeping, it was far from ideal for research.
The late 1990s were a period of rapid technological advancement and transformation. The Internet was emerging as a powerful tool for communication and information dissemination. Its advent made me increasingly aware of the potential for using digital technology to share resources, beyond the small university website I had set up for my history classes at Lumière-Lyon 2 University. I saw the Internet as more than just a medium for making Shanghai’s photographs publicly available; it was an opportunity to tap into the collective knowledge of a broader audience. Most of the images in my collection came with little or no contextual information regarding their origins or content, and I hoped that by sharing them online, scholars and the public alike could help identify and document them more effectively.
The process began with digitizing hundreds of photographs from my collection. They were uploaded into a database system developed through a joint venture between Lyon 2 University and a private company. However, just as we were about to receive a much-needed software update that would resolve several bugs, a dispute broke out between the partners in the joint venture. They took the matter to court, and as a result, access to the software was suspended—just three months before we were scheduled to present Shanghai in Images at the ECAI conference in Hong Kong. It was my first lesson in the instability of digital technologies.
What initially seemed like a complete disaster turned into an unexpected blessing. I was fortunate to meet Gérald Foliot, a newly recruited IT engineer responsible for the N.T.I.C. (New Technologies of Information and Communication) infrastructure at M.R.A.S.H., the institution that housed my research institute. Gérald was an extraordinarily creative engineer, and he candidly reassured me: We can build an MsSQL database and migrate the existing dataset onto it. True to his word, within two months, the new database was up and running. This marked the beginning of a collaboration that would span two decades. Over time, Gérald developed his initial database into a full-fledged system—Webactors—which he continues to maintain and which now supports a diverse range of databases.
I was also fortunate to work with Zhang Yu, the newly appointed China librarian and infographer at the Lyon Institute of East Asian Studies, who took over from my amateur hands in designing the interface and refining its various search functions. Zhang Yu eventually became responsible for designing all the databases developed at the institute.
Though the Shanghai in Images website is long gone, the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive preserved snapshots of it beginning in 2004. While the archived content is limited, it still captures the essence of our work: the structure of the database, its functionalities, and how users could interact with the collection. By July 18, 2004, the online collection of Shanghai photographs had grown to 1,213 images. The database was searchable via metadata, including keywords, which also served to create ready-made thematic albums.
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Over time, the project grew beyond our initial expectations. By 2004, our initiative had expanded into a series of new databases hosted at the Lyon Institute of Asian Studies.
These databases continued to build on our original objectives, compiling even more extensive collections of historical photographs and visual data—covering not just Shanghai but also Beijing; thematic subjects such as Père Jo and Chinese Torture; and different types of materials, including maps (Shanghai, Kyoto) and postcards (China).
Shanghai in Images was more than just a repository of images—it was a statement of intent. Our aim was to break the conventional barriers that restricted access to historical resources. By providing free access to these visual sources, we hoped to encourage historians, researchers, and enthusiasts to integrate visual data into their studies, enriching the broader narrative of Chinese history.
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In parallel with this digital initiative, Yeh Wen-hsin and I launched a series of workshops dedicated not only to the use of visual sources but also to exploring how images could become a driver of historical thinking. Between 2002 and 2009, we organized these meetings alternately in Berkeley and Lyon, even in Tokyo and Corsica. From these encounters emerged two books that encapsulated our collective efforts in this field.
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Today, the landscape of academic research and publishing is evolving rapidly. French and European academic policymakers are pushing scholars to comply with increasingly stringent Open Science regulations, aimed at promoting transparency, accessibility, and collaboration in research. However, the business models and publishing practices have yet to fully adapt, often relying on publisher subsidies to meet these new standards.
Open Science did not begin with official mandates. It started a quarter of a century ago, not from top-down regulations but from grassroots initiatives like ECAI— by the great Buddhist scholar Lew Lancaster— and countless independent projects like ours, all driven by the same vision: to share knowledge freely, across borders, without restrictions.
Our project demonstrated the transformative power of technology and the Internet in historical research. It showcased the importance of visual sources and the need for open access to historical resources. Most importantly, it highlighted the potential for grassroots initiatives to drive meaningful change in the academic world. Despite the momentum behind Open Science, many barriers remain in place—including those erected by public institutions such as libraries and archives. At the same time, innovative collaborative research practices are more crucial than ever.
Shanghai in Images serves as a reminder that even the smallest initiatives can have a profound impact, shaping the future of research and scholarship for the next generation.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Christian Henriot (February 8, 2025). Shanghai In Images: A Look Back. Blog Virtual Shanghai. Retrieved May 14, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13a8n










The link to the Way Back Machine is wrong “Though the Shanghai in Images website is long gone, the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive preserved snapshots of it beginning in 2004.”
Could you give is the right link?
Thank you.
Corrected. Thanks for letting me know.
Thank you.
Actually, I was looking for a direct link to the archived “Shanghai In Images” Wayback Machine site. I have difficulties finding the snapshots there…
I found it: https://web.archive.org/web/20041222215640/http://virtualshanghai.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Image_Overview.php , please, delete my above messages if you think they are not relevant…