"Picturing Covered Faces – A Brief Visual History of Face Masks in Modern China", by Justine rochot

"Since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, peoples’ massive recourse to face mask in Eastern Asia, and in China specifically, has led to a widespread belief in a so-called Asian “face mask culture”, regularly opposed to what is considered a more stigmatising approach to face masks in Western countries. However, this opposition neglects to take into account the historical processes leading to the widespread use of face masks in China. Focusing on photographs, pictures and comic strips featuring face masks, dating from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the Maoist period, this text offers a modest glimpse into the cumulated layers of meanings which have historically been attributed to face masks and to their representations in recent Chinese history."
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