Chinese media mistakenly identifies Vietnamese photo.

The online French-language version of China's People's Daily recently featured a series of color photographs of China. However, some of these photos were taken in Tonkin (the old name for northern Vietnam during the French colonial period).

Mr. Dinh Trong Hieu, an ethnologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, was deeply disturbed by the article titled "The Frenchman Albert Kahn brings color photographs to China" (Le Franais Albert Kahn donne des couleurs à la Chine), because, according to him, it contained images of Tonkin – the old name for northern Vietnam during the French colonial period in the early 20th century. Mr. Hieu wrote a letter to Dr. Pham Xuan Thach, Deputy Head of the Faculty of Literature, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, detailing the matter and including a link to the article at http://french.peopledaily.com.cn/Culture/8465978.html.

The painting "Confucian's Fingernails" at the photo exhibition at the French Cultural Center - Photo: Trinh Nguyen (screenshot)

At the link above, the article's content clearly states: "This series of color photographs shows us China 100 years ago, during the Qing Dynasty. The images were taken by photographers sponsored by the Frenchman Albert Kahn and are the first color photographs of China."

However, among those 10 color photographs, some are currently on display at the French Cultural Center L'Espace in Hanoi, as part of the French Season in Vietnam cooperation program, based on the ideas of historian Emmanuel Poisson of Paris Diderot University and ethnologist Dinh Trong Hieu of the French National Center for Scientific Research. Specifically, there is the photograph "The Scholar's Fingernails," which depicts the long fingernails of a scholar from Northern Vietnam – often referred to as "orchid leaf fingernails" in the past. Two other photographs show Hanoi streets, which the French Cultural Center has captioned as Hang Thiec Street and the lantern street in the early 20th century. The fourth photograph shows officials in charge of the Hanoi region in 1915. These works were all taken by Léon Busy, as part of Albert Kahn's project.

The same photo appeared on the French-language page of the People's Daily – an image supposedly from China. However, at the edge of the photo was the word Tonkin – the name of northern Vietnam during the French colonial period.

On the afternoon of January 6th, Thanh Nien contacted the French Cultural Center L'Espace in Hanoi, requesting information on the origin of the photographs. The answer was clear: “The French Cultural Center confirms that three of the four photographs used in the exhibition are images of Hanoi, taken by Léon Busy in the early 20th century. These photographs are currently stored in the global archive, the Albert Kahn Museum in France. The classification and storage of these photographs are done very professionally, so the possibility of error is very low. In addition, the museum also stores accompanying information about the author, date, and location where each photograph was taken.”

Also on the afternoon of January 6th, historian Emmanuel Poisson confirmed via email the origin of the three photographs taken in Hanoi. They all belong to the archives of the Albert Kahn Museum. Regarding the fourth photograph, depicting officials, he sent a link to a scientific article proving that it was also a work by Léon Busy taken in Vietnam. In the email, he also clarified that, in his project with Albert Kahn, Léon Busy did not go to China at all.

According to Dr. Pham Xuan Thach, "What is extremely puzzling is that Albert Kahn's photographs are all clearly annotated with the location where they were taken. In particular, we can see that the third photograph (the 'Confucian's Fingernail' photograph) still has the caption indicating it was taken in Northern Vietnam – the image itself reads 'Tonkin'." "Regardless, this confusion could cause harmful misunderstandings. Vietnamese authorities need to respond to Nhan Dan Daily to issue an immediate correction," Dr. Thach suggested.

According to Thanh Nien newspaper