Carte Postale Indo-Chine Française Tonkin Series, 317, 758, 3121 (1904 - )

<p><em>[ the music of history ]</em></p> <p>Tonkin was one of the 5 protectorates of the ‘Union Indochinoise’, to the northeast and with Hà Nội as its capital. On January 1st of 1882 the colonial governor opened the ‘Manufacture d’Opium de Saigon’ in order to control the entire opium production in the ‘Union Indochinoise’ and its sales, financing the colonial regime to a considerable extent. The french exploitation of coal in Tonkin began in 1884. Soon after, 1894 onwards, the private ‘Société française des charbonnages du Tonkin’ intensified the exploitation in the extended open-pit deposits of Hongay. On June 27th of 1908 Vietnamese nationalists attempt to assassinate French military of the Hà Nội garrison by poisoning their meals, the start of a general uprising in Tonkin to drive out the colonial regime. The strata of image and text in the postcards follow in their economy the economy of power, their ‘truth’ is a commodity. The postcard with the beheading scene seems to have as its source photographs signed with “Exécution capitale à Quan Yen Tonkin le 7 Mars 1905. (Coll. J. Chinh)” from which the postcard publisher produced postcards with a variety of legends, testing the sales market…</p>