The City of Flowers

In 1908, Hungarian doctor Dezs Bozky left Hong Kong as an officer with the Austro-Hungarian Navy and became a witness to the end of Chinas imperial era. As he traveled through Canton, Fujian, Shanghai, and Beijing, he documented the countryside, numerous cities along Chinas coast, and his impressions of regions that were experiencing dramatic socioeconomic change. The City of Flowers shares the diary excerpts and photographs that Bozky created during his time in Canton and Guangdong provinces to offer a glimpse of life during one of Chinas most transformative periods. Each image is digitized from Bozkys hand-colored glass slides, which are held in the permanent collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts in Budapest. Although the Qing Dynasty ended long ago, Bozkys interest in nature, architecture, the Qing Dynasty, and the people he met resonates with audiences today.