Missionary Children Riding Sacred Fish
Item
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Title
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Missionary Children Riding Sacred Fish
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Caption
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On sacred fish in temple on the way up Mt. Omei - looks like Don & Joy [Willmott] on sacred fish, & Bunny & Bill Phelps, early '30s.
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Identifier
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WFC_061
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Description
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The sacred fish gong is in the courtyard of a temple. Missionary children sit atop the sacred instrument as if it were a toy. The photographer must have approved. Of a photograph of mish kids standing on the head of the Great Buddha of Leshan, Don Willmott later wrote, "It is an example of what I call the 'colonial attitude' which we had in those days — a kind of innocent arrogance toward the Chinese. We kids would do almost anything we felt like, whether it was disrespectful of their religions or causing damage to their crops. They never dared to retaliate. They were always quite friendly. But maybe they did have in mind that on the Yangtze River, not far away, there were gunboats to protect us, and that sometimes these gunboats took action."
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Commentary
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The location is uncertain since the caption was written by Don Willmott decades later. There is a sacred fish at the Wenshuyuan Temple in Chengdu, but there could easily be more than one.
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Creator
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Earl Willmott
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Date Created
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1930s
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Physical Dimensions
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1 3/16 w x 2 3/16 inches without borders
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Original Format
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Photographic print
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Relation
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JOW fish x 2
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Source
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Leslie Earl and Mary Katharine Willmott
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Provenance
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Passed down from Don Willmott to Cory Willmott.
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Publisher
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SIUE
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Record Date
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2025-02-15
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Contributor
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Cory Willmott
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Type
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Still Image
