Early postcards can be defined as a means of communication, a collector's item, or a 1900s fad. They were also, however, a new and effective means of spreading images of distant countries. They reached a broader audience than illustrated journals, exerting an influence comparable only with that of television much later. They appeared at a time significant for three neighbouring but culturally distinct eastern Asiatic areas: Indo-China, China, and Japan. The 1900 Boxer Rebellion in China unleashed the flood, hastening the proliferation of postcards of and in the area by providing both sustained interest abroad and a local market of foreign soldiers writing home.
6 years ago
