THE CHINESE SUPPLICE

The concept of Eastern cruelty, one of the cornerstones of the propaganda of the colonial powers that militarily and economically occupied China, was based, in the West, on their representation of torture of prisoners. This world were dripping blood of those subjects who were working on the plantations, in mines and in producing opium and who received the most unspeakable tortures if their rebellions only attempted to undermine the feudal system of garments and corrupted elites who had sold out their people and their lands to the greed of the colonial institutions: banks, free companies, but also religious fraternities and many small and large predators who took care of bringing the resources coming from the even then so called “Third World” and distributing them in Europe, also reaching a part of the common people, thus controlling the political and social consensus in case they would become dangerous for the rulers and the landowners. China, distorted by the presence of foreign nations, especially English but also French, German, American and Japanese, become a world where opium took over, breaking the cohesion and behavioral culture of the people as never seen before. The decision to import opium from India to China taken by the British led automatically to the Boxer Rebellion, and its bloody denouement did nothing to sharpen the anti-Western and anti-colonial sentiment of those people who then led people in their struggle for self-determination of nations. The red circle drawn by the blindfolded Emperor on the names of prisoners condemned the latter to execution by either self-strangling or decapitation and subsequent exposure of the severed heads in public. This was done not only in China, but also around what is now Southeast Asia. The photos of the exhibition are reproductions of the originals which will be shown separately and supplied as rare.

Names to be beheaded choiced by emperatorPublic show before the executionHead shelf at FormosaGoing to the suppliceFew moments before executionExecution at AmoiJapanese troops and Imperial guards at boxer executions at An Ding Men Gate in BeijingTaking flesh offThe boxer sent to execution ground at Cai Shi KouThe Chinese Supplice
ENGLISH - ITALIAN