PHOTOS: Shanghai Jiaotong University Then and Now

By Angus Stewart

The ‘Jiaotong’ (交通) in ‘Jiaotong University’ means ‘communication’. This is because when the imperial government founded the university in 1896, they placed it under the control of the Telegraph Office. The university has switched hands since – so many times in fact that although the school retains the title ‘Jiaotong’, the original English translation is meaningless.

Jiaotong’s social media team recently released a set of 20 ‘then and now’ images to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the founding of the original Xujiahui campus. A lot has happened in China since then, but from looking at these newly released photos you might be forgiven for thinking that the only new things to arrive at Jiaotong have been Western clothes and color photography!

Several of the photos are posed recreations of typical university scenes, while others superimpose the old on top of the new...

The images focus almost entirely on students and on architechture. Which has changed more?

The oldest images, such as that of the above football team, date back to the final days of the Qing Dynasty...

...but most document Jiaotong under the post-imperial Republic of China.

Women were first admitted to Jiaotong in 1927...

...and have since become the dominant force on campus!

The young men, at least, still control the baseball team.

A century of change! The mind boggles. We literary types at That's are just happy that the University library is still standing, and looking academic as ever.

[Images via Netease]

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