【大美廣東】Exhibition "Encountering Whang Tong" Opened: Reviving Canton Trade, Botanical Paintings and Cultural Exchange in the 18th-19th Century
展覽“遇見黃東”開幕：再現清代廣州“事仔”的大世界
On September 27th, the exhibition "Encountering Whang Tong: Canton Trade, Botanical Paintings and Cultural Exchange in the 18th-19th Century" officially opened to the public at the Guangzhou Maritime Museum. The protagonist of the exhibition, Whang Tong, was an assistant who worked for foreigners in the Guangzhou Thirteen Hongs over 200 years ago. Unlike ordinary assistant, Whang Tong was not only proficient in English but had also traveled to the UK, leaving behind a trail of stories.
In 2021, the book "Encountering Whang Tong: Little People and the Big World in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Pearl River Estuary", written by Chinese scholar May Bo Ching, brought Whang Tong's story back to Chinese readers. After meticulous research by scholars like May Bo Ching from around the world, the narrative of this little person has finally returned to Guangzhou and is now presented to his "hometown" at the PearlRiver through a physical exhibition.
9月27日，展覽“遇見黃東：一個清代廣州‘事仔’的大世界”在廣州海事博物館正式面向公眾開放。展覽主人公黃東，是一名兩百多年前在廣州十三行為洋人打工的小廝，粵語又叫“事仔”。不同于普通“事仔”，黃東不僅精通英文，還曾漂洋過海在英國留下不少足跡與故事。
2021年，中國學者程美寶所著《遇見黃東：18-19世紀珠江口的小人物與大世界》一書讓黃東再現中文世界。史海茫茫，經過以程美寶為代表的海內外學者的爬梳，這個小人物的故事終于回到廣州，并以實物展覽的方式呈現給他珠江口的“故鄉”。
來源：羊城晚報
