Chinese amateur photographers were very active before the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. In the mean time, amateur or creative photography was also germinating in the Japanese occupied Taiwan. After 1949, amateur photographers from mainland China reestablished the Chinese Photographic Society with local photographers and dominated photographic activities. The photographic society of Taiwan founded in 1963 was considered main competitor of the Chinese Photographic Society. It had membership based mostly on native Taiwanese photographers. However, the competition between these societies was not as fierce as political scenes. The geographical, political and ethnic differences among these amateur photographers were obscured by the pursuit of "the pleasure of photography."
Keywords
amateur photographic societies, amateur photographer, Chinese Photographic Society, The Photographic Society of Taiwan