CHINESE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT EXECUTION BEHEADING DECAPITATION POSTMORTEM 19th CENTURY

Item #1366

Six photographs depicting grotesque examples of judicial homicide in China, c. 1920s. Romanized terms are used to represent place “Peking” for Beijing and “Canton” for Guangzhou. Photographs have writing on recto, inscribed into negative. These sepia images measure 5 3/4” x 3 1/2”. In good condition.

There are executions present in each image. Three photographs display decapitation as a form of capital punishment and tactic for public suppression. One image of a body in the middle of the street is seen lying under the person’s head hung from three posts. Another image of a head alone tied with rope to a wall. The caption reads: “The penalty of stealing in China. It pays to be honest over there.” Another striking image of a decapitation with the head tucked between the legs of the body which lies in a desolate field. The caption reads: “A ghastly joke, Peking”.

One image is of a woman blindfolded with a pistol at her back and crowd surrounding the scene. This is moments before her execution. The punishment is severe, the crime is unknown. Other images are of piles of dead bodies being placed into carts and toted through the town, again as a warning.

The People’s Republic of China continues to carry out more judicial executions than the rest of the world combined, this is according to the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty 2022 report, and Amnesty International (2003).

Price: $600.00