Trottoir Roulant - 游觀台
The text reads:
At the Paris World Exposition of 1900, the Frenchman A-lumang ("Mr. Inadvisable"), in his great generosity, seeks to fashion a marvelous machine to dazzle the eyes and ears of visitors from all countries. So he brought his idea to life [in the form of] a travelling observation deck. It is four meters across and over 200 meters long, standing more than 15 meters above ground it will be situated at the entryway to the exposition grounds. Visitors ascend the platform by climbing a ladder; the platform has a capacity of 51,732 persons. It is capable of moving at a rate of 17 to 18 Chinese li per hour, making a complete circuit of the exposition grounds rather than walking. A round trip will cost 50 centimes per rider.
The image, titled “Moving Observation Deck," features a triple-decker train car, pulled by a steam engine, apparently sans train tracks. The text indicates that this technological marvel was featured at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, France. This image is presentational, not representational. Like other depictions of technology, for example the illustrations in late Qing novels, the illustrator presents the idea of the object, but is not dedicated to visually reproducing either the real object, or the textual description the image accompanies. The reader is offered a vicarious chance to share in the cosmopolitan marvels of a world expo and its curated vision of global relations. The print run for Dianshizhai huabao was 1884 to 1898, but this image appears to depict an event that would not occur until 1900: an attempt to visualize the future. The Paris Expo of 1900 was a highly anticipated event, appearing in French and English print media as early as 1897, and making its way to semi-colonial Shanghai. Even seemingly real representations of the attraction were a site for fantastic imagination of how the future might leave some behind.
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