Book Launch | Wayfaring: Photography in Taiwan, 1950s–1980s

Book Launch Celebration

Join us for the launch of Wayfaring: Photography in Taiwan, 1950s–1980s, explores four transformative decades of photography in Taiwan, through a dozen richly illustrated essays and interviews with Taiwan photographers.

To mark the occasion, the editors Dr. Chen Shuxia and Dr. Olivier Krischer will be in conversation, discussing the evolution of Taiwanese art and photography from the 1950s to the 1980s. Magda Keaney, Head Curator of International Art at the National Gallery of Australia, will offer commentary on the book and officially announce its launch.

Light refreshments will be served at 5pm.

About the book

Wayfaring: Photography in Taiwan,1950s -1980s explores four transformative decades of photography in Taiwan, tracing its evolution amid the island’s emergence from Japanese colonialism and integration into the Nationalist regime under martial law. Through a dozen richly illustrated essays and interviews, the book bridges the gap between recent vigorous Chinese-language scholarship on the subject and its limited representation in English. Taking its title from the concept of photography as a means of pathfinding, the book explores how, in the 1950s and 1960s, photography played a pivotal role in documenting local culture and everyday life, in the hands of both professionals and amateurs. In the 1970s and 1980s, photography was witness and agent of social transformation, engaging not only street protests but also issues such as environmental protection, mental health and gender politics, as well as being a vital conduit for cross-pollination in contemporary art, theatre, cinema and performance at the time.

Authors include Olivier Krischer, Chen Shuxia, Mia Yinxing Liu, Kevin Alexander Su, Anne Ma Kuo-An, Chen Chia-Chi, Lee Wei-I, Tseng Shao-Chien, Liu Chen-Hsiang, Yao Jui-Chung, Tsao Liang-Pin, Hsu Fang-Tze. 

Editors

Dr. Chen Shuxia is a historian and curator of Chinese art and photography. Her research concerns cultural network, art collectives, and amateur and diasporic artistic practice in the Sinophone world. Her recent republished edited volumes include Wayfaring: Photography in Taiwan, 1950s–1980s (2025), A Home for Photography Learning: The Friday Salon, 1977–1980 (2024) and Chinese Toggles: Culture in Miniature (2024). Her recent curatorial projects include ‘The trace is not a presence …’ (2024), 'Chinese Toggles: Culture in Miniature' (2023), ‘Sentient Paper’ (2022) and ‘Wayfaring: Photography in 1970s–80s Taiwan’ (2021). Chen was the inaugural curator of the China Gallery and East Asian Collections at the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak Wing Museum. She is currently a lecturer in the Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership at the University of New South Wales School of Art & Design.

Dr Olivier Krischer is a historian and curator of modern and contemporary art and photomedia from East Asia and its diasporas. He is currently a lecturer in the MA Curating and Cultural Leadership at UNSW Art and Design, and lecturer of modern and contemporary Asian art history at the National Art School, Sydney. Previous curatorial projects include Wei Leng Tay – Abridge (2021) and Wayfaring: Photography in 1970s-80s Taiwan (2021, co-curated with Dr. Shuxia Chen); and he is editor and co-editor of John Young: The History Projects (Power Publications, 2024), Zhang Peili: from Painting to Video (ANU Press, 2019) and Asia through Art and Anthropology: Cultural Translation Across Borders (2013, with F. Nakamura, M. Perkins).