A western proverb goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It means: A good photo may imply many concepts which the author wants to express; similarly‚ a faded old photo may tell many stories which people do not know. Among all disciplines‚ ethnologists are a group of people who visit fields and enjoy taking photos. In times when there were no digital cameras‚ photos were black and white and video cameras were not popularized‚ ethnologists could only rely on photos as their best tools to record the “truth” in details in the fieldwork.  | | Picutre 1. Investigation Team of Academia Sinica | However‚ given the limitations of the camera lenses at the time‚ even with the widest angle not everything could be recorded in full detail. At least‚ such was the case before the 360° Panorama was invented. Thus‚ images beyond the lenses‚ stories which happened before and after photographers pressed shutters‚ and the inner mind of people under lenses are even worth exploring. From 1929 to 1943‚ researchers from the Institute of History and Philosophy at Academia Sinica (IHP) conducted multiple investigations of the “frontier regions” in southwest China. After conducting several investigations‚ investigators left thousands of field research photos‚ ethnic documents and ethnic cultural relics as well as several segments of dynamic black and white videos‚ all of which have become important first-hand historical data for contemporary research on Southwest China. As a result‚ the article would like to explore the stories behind the recorded field data‚ hoping to share with readers the “history of Ethnology” through “stories” told in the photos.  | | Photo 2. Digital Archive of Ethnic Minorities in Southwest China | Investigation of Southwest Minority Groups and IHP Digital Archives Program The fieldwork conducted by IHP came to an end in the most troubled age‚ when the political unrest in China occurred. A series of battles made the data unable to be arranged and archived properly and most of the data remained untouched in the storehouse of IHP. It was only until the recent decade‚ with the cooperation between Taiwan E-learning and Digital Archives Program (TELDAP) and IHP‚ that the data from the fieldwork was finally digitalized and displayed in the Digital Archive of Ethnic Minorities in Southwest China. Field research photos discussed in the article may be found in "田野照片"(“Field Research Photos”) database. “Investigators” in the eyes of “Interviewees” Before the 1940s‚ Southwest China was a relatively isolated region where the government had failed to impose its power in many places. As a safety precaution‚ investigators had to request for all levels of governments and the military to protect them. However‚ warlords‚ bandits and drug traffickers in gangs fought against each other for the planting and selling of opium in many places. One could imagine the severity of the situation faced by investigators‚ despite having been accompanied by the military. What’s more‚ the mountains and valleys along the way blocked the traffic. Indeed‚ it might be hard for people to imagine the hardships and dangers investigators experienced. For ethnic minorities who became “interviewees”‚ these investigators from “the central government” were rarely seen in the region. With their novel equipment‚ these investigators always caught people’s attention wherever they went.  | | Photo 3. Miao People were playing on the swings (Miao Ren De Da Qiu) | The photo was about Miao People playing on the swings. It was taken by the researcher at West Hunan (Xiangxi) in Hunan province (currently at West Hunan (Xiangxi) Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture). What the investigator wanted to record was Miao People’s festival facility built by wood and bamboo‚ which was similar to a ferris wheel in an amusement park. However‚ if we look closer at the surrounding crowd‚ their eyes all focused on the camera lenses held by investigators.  | | Photo 4: Miao People were playing on the swings (Miao Ren De Da Qiu) (Partial) | For these ethnic minorities‚ playing on the swings was commonly seen; what interested them were investigators from the central government and their cameras. Limitations of Investigators Although the equipment that the investigators carried at the time was considered novel‚ it was relatively heavy and inconvenient compared to the thin and small digital equipment that was invented later. As a result‚ the photos that were taken by researchers were subject to certain limitations. In the following two sets of photos‚ the black and white set was taken by Mr. Ruey Yih-Fu at Majiatun‚ Xuyong County in Southern Sichuan in 1943; the color set was taken by the academician Wang Ming-Ke in 2007 for the comparison.  | | Photo 5: Miao People did the farming worked in a raining day
(Miao Ren Yu Zhong Da Tian Cui) | | |  | | Photo 6: Miao female delivered meals | For people like us‚ who interpret field research photos‚ the most intractable problem is what exactly did the photographers wanted to take‚ why did they take photos in such approaches‚ and what is the relationship between each of the photos. At first‚ we did not recognize the relationship between these two black and white photos. When Mr. Ruey took the photos‚ did he want to take photos of people or terrain? The only thing we knew was that their serial numbers were arranged together and few words were noted on these two photos. The puzzle had not been solved until Mr. Wang visited the place again more than 60 years later. In fact‚ these two photos indicate the scenes at the front door of the house where Mr. Ruey Yih-Fu temporarily lived at that time. One photo presents the farmland at the right hand side and the other presents the pond at the left hand side. It is very likely that Mr. Ruey placed the camera tripod on the private grain-drying field and took one photo of the left hand and right hand side respectively. After all‚ the camera was heavy and inconvenient compared to the present digital mini-camera. Thus‚ it was natural for Mr. Ruey to take more photos of two sides after the tripod was set up. The same situation happened at Ganmeng‚ Nanla Township in Yunnan province[1].
[1] Regarding the description of photos taken in Ganmeng please refer to: Wang Ming-Ke 〈尋訪凌純聲、芮逸夫兩先生的足跡：史語所早期中國西南民族調查的回顧〉 archived in: 《古今論衡》18期（Taipei：2008.10）：25-26.  |  | | Photo 7: Mountains around Ganmeng | “Model Imagination” of Investigators Fu Si-Nian‚ the former director of IHP‚ mentioned in a letter for Li Guang-Ming (the assistant who was sent to Western Sichuan for the ethnic investigation in 1929) that he has to buy many things (particular those with text)‚ learn the language of ethnic minorities‚ avoid random walks‚ and take many photos during the investigation[2]. Such principles of investigation have roughly been followed in few ethnic investigations later. Accordingly‚ it was a big challenge for investigators to grasp the timing‚ take photos and collect data within a limited amount of time.
[2] Fu Si-Nian 《史語所公文書檔》，元115-20-10. However‚ not every investigator could encounter the ideal people‚ matters and objects in the places they visited‚ especially in the case of rituals they wanted to participate in. Most of the rituals were subject to time‚ so investigators could only join rituals by luck. Thus‚ investigators had to ask interviewees to “perform the show cooperatively”‚ in order to enrich the content of surveys.  | | Photo 9: Miao People set up nets to hunt goats | In the set of photos above‚ the left one was taken at Majiatun in 1943; the old man in the right photo used to be the young man in the black and white photo. The author visited Majiatun in 2009 for the investigation and bumped into this old man accidentally. His name is Gu Ting-Gui‚ who helped Mr. Ruey Yih-Fu during the investigation at that time (such information is recorded in《川南苗族調查日誌1942-43》[3]((Chuan Nan Miao Zu Diao Cha Ri Zhi 1942-43) written by Mr. Ruey). After a period of interviews‚ Mr. Ting-Gui held this black and white photo and suddenly said‚ “I am the person in the photo!” In the photo‚ the young man holds a sickle and carries an unknown object (Originally‚ we thought it was a backpack.) around his waist. According to Mr. Ruey’s note on the photo: “Miao People setting up nets to hunt goats”‚ Mr. Ting-Gui said that: “At first‚ Mr. Ruey wanted me to stand here and pretend to catch a goat‚ and the object I carried around my waist was a net ”. based on this dialogue‚ we realized that the Miao People’s way of production‚ tools for hunting and the process of “model images” were all performed by interviewees at the investigator’s request.
[3] Wrote by Ruey Yih-Fu edited and reviewed by Wang Ming-Ke 《川南苗族調查日誌1942-43》（台北：中央研究院歷史語言研究所，2003）. For such requests‚ most of the interviewees were willing to cooperate with the investigators. However‚ a similar scenario was rejected in West Hunan (Xiangxi) in 1933. After the survey in West Hunan (Xiangxi) ended‚ the local gentry sent a letter to Mongolian & Tibetan Affairs Commission of Nationalist Government and accused investigators of “three charges”: 1. Forcing Miao People to kill cows for worship of God; 2. Forcing women to play flower drums with obscene music‚ and whipping and later fining those who did not obey their requests; 3. Forcing men to act as their servants. Although these charges were verified that no “compulsion”‚ “whip” and “order” happened[4] one could observe that investigators and interviewees wanted to demonstrate “model” features of ethnic minorities in these photos. To demonstrate models‚ the images in photos often became an ideal image from “imaginations”.
[4] Wang Ming-Ke 〈國族邊緣、邊界與變遷〉 archived in: 《新史學》21卷3期（台北：2010）：37. Just like the ethnic minorities shown in the last photo‚ they ask their people to hide all civilized objects when seeing anthropologists coming for an investigation. It is because these objects are not supposed to appear in “model images”. Perhaps the comic may be used to summarize the article. Of course‚ we could not say that ethnologists made up these photos. However‚ the moment investigators press the shutters and catch the scenes with their cameras‚ they abandon the scenes outside the camera lenses. In a series of faded field research photos‚ we can see the curiosity and limitations of investigators as well as ethnic “model images”. When investigators presented a model image‚ the ethnic minorities became “stereotyped” and were recognized by later researchers as a “historical imagination” and ultimately turned into a “historical fact”. Perhaps such images may become impeccable models for later generations. This is the concern that every worker engaged in investigations of ethnology should ponder on. | 
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