Tong Cheong was a Chinese photographer who operated in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in the 19th century. Cheong advertised his services as a printer and photographer in the 1884 ''Japan Directory'', offering souvenir albums of the "views and costumes" of Japan. The 1885 advertisement for his business, now called Tong Cheong Brothers, has no mention of photography, simply noting services as printers and bookbinders. Following a period in which many foreign photographers were living and working in Japan, by the end of 1886 Tong Cheong and

Adolfo Farsari Adolfo Farsari (; 11 February 1841 – 7 February 1898) was an Italian photographer based in Yokohama, Japan. His studio, the last notable foreign-owned studio in Japan, was one of the country's largest and most prolific commercial photograph ...

were the only foreign commercial photographers still operating in the country. By the following year Cheong had left Japan. It is possible that Tong Cheong was related to Hong Cheong, the Chinese operator of another photographic studio in Yokohama between 1875 and 1885.Bennett, ''OJP'', 236; ''PiJ'', 164.

Notes

References

* Bennett, Terry. ''Old Japanese Photographs: Collector's Data Guide'' London: Quaritch, 2006. (hard) * Bennett, Terry. ''Photography in Japan: 1853–1912'' Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 2006. (hard) * Dobson, Sebastian. "Yokohama Shashin". In ''Art & Artifice: Japanese Photographs of the Meiji Era – Selections from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston'' Boston: MFA Publications, 2004. (paper) (hard) Chinese expatriates in Japan Chinese photographers Photography in Japan Year of birth missing Year of death unknown {{photographer-stub