Visual anthropology, as a sub-discipline of cultural anthropology, has shown vigorous development in the 21st century and grown into a highly open and innovative research field. Shouldering the task of better understanding and expressing China, scholars have engaged in a series of exploratory research initiatives on China’s social changes and cultural inheritance.

Development background

Visual anthropology truly gains its disciplinary relevance as anthropologists have turned their research approaches from scientism to humanism, from deducing abstract theories to interpreting specific events, which endows objective visual representations of cultures with knowledge justification and production capabilities, said Pang Tao, a research fellow from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Since the late 20th century, visual anthropology has marched towards a new stage amid the revolutionary progress of imaging and communication technologies, said Wang Haifei, a professor from the Center for Studies of Ethnic Groups in Northwest China at Lanzhou University. Without new technologies such as drones and virtual reality (VR), it is impossible to use a lens to complete the panoramic description and display of specific cultural fields. That said, visual anthropology is within the theoretical framework of the anthropological discipline, with “anthropology” at its core, rather than “visual” approaches. 

Visual ethnography

Ethnography is not only the core research method for anthropology, but also its textual expression, said Zhu Jingjiang, director of the Research Center for Visual Anthropology at Minzu University of China. Visual ethnography occurs when anthropologists use imaging tools to record social behaviors and cultural phenomena which take place in the field through interventional or non-interventional shooting methods. In this way, anthropologists collect locals’ “thematic” perspectives and establish visual field databases. Then post-editing and other creative means are applied to complete an expressive film about a specific community culture—a visual text that is independent from written ethnography and rich in cultural descriptions and interpretative values.

When compared with written ethnography, mainly in the single expression form of writing, visual ethnography demands the usage of video cameras, cameras, computers, and other visual creation tools, Zhu continued. As digital imaging technologies constantly develop, new visual tools such as 3D imaging, holographic imaging, and VR will further augment visual ethnography’s expressiveness, making anthropology’s visual representation system more competent in reproducing scenes. It should be noted that academic meanings are the same between visual ethnography and anthropological ethnography, although different narrative logic directs different avenues toward a holistic understanding of mankind. 

Chinese anthropologists have applied visual means to ethnographic practice from very early on, Wang added. During 1957 and 1976, the Institute of Nationality Studies at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (present Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at CASS) collaborated with film studios to shoot the Scientific Documentary Series of Chinese Ethnic Minorities’ Social History after receiving commissions from the Ethnic Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, aiming to record on the spot traditional social models and ethnic cultural characteristics of Chinese ethnic minorities. This project pioneered the early model of recording Chinese ethnographic films nationally and laid the foundation for the later prosperity of Chinese ethnographic films.

Research projects

In the new era, a series of major state-led ethnographic compilation projects have fully utilized imaging technologies, such as the Chinese Thang-ga Culture Archive organized by the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association, the Visual Ethnography of Chinese Festivals, the Project of a Hundred Chinese Epics, and the Rescue Recording for Representative Inheritors of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, three projects led by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Visual anthropology’s academic orientations and theoretical turns should align with the requirements of creating a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, and constructing a community of shared future for mankind, in a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Pang suggested. The ongoing Himalayan Ethnographic Film, which features a cross-ethnic and cross-regional visual ethnographic practice, aims to visually narrate how various ethnic groups exchange, interact, and blend with each other. 

Visual anthropology requires enhanced cooperation with other disciplines, Pang added. When it comes to the visual ethnography of ethnic villages in mountainous southwest China, researchers work to fully portray the locations of village houses, mountain and river systems, disaster prevention systems, and positional relationships among kin, by means of 3D measurement modeling, digital VR, big data, and cloud computing. In doing so, scholars can conduct a comparative analysis to the scale of village settlements and illuminate the interactive relationships between people and their environments. In Himalayan social research, cooperation between visual anthropologists and experimental linguists can better unravel the historical process of population migration and movement in this region.