In 2005, at a critical time when domestic cameras entered the field of vision of collectors, a Chinese writer wrote "Chinese Camera", which made collectors who like Chinese cameras ecstatic. Prior to this, the Chinese Camera Collection was the English version of the book "Cameras in the People's Republic of China" written by the American Dennis.
But the author of the book "Chinese Camera" is Zhuang Keming of Ningxia. A completely unfamiliar name, no one in the camera collecting circle knows his origin, let alone how he collects and plays with domestic cameras. The content of this book is too rich, basically covering most of the content of domestic cameras, it is simply a complete collection of domestic cameras and collection cheats.
Those who have read this book have always had a question: Who is Zhuang Keming? How many cameras does he collect? Is his information from? As for the author, Zhuang Keming, who only roughly knew that he worked in the railway department in Yinchuan, Ningxia, and was the author of a Chinese camera that was accidentally "hidden" deeply, this question lasted for nearly 20 years. It wasn't until January 18, 2024 that Mr. Li Zhong and I made a special trip to Yinchuan, Ningxia to visit him, and we were finally able to unravel this mystery. Mr. Zhuang was interviewed by us.
Mr. Chong, aged 78, worked in the railway sector before his retirement. His ancestral home is Pizhou, Jiangsu, and he came to Lanzhou with his parents in the 50s. Because his parents were railway workers, he later also studied at a railway secondary school and was assigned to work in the railway after graduation. He successively served in the Youth League, the Trade Union, the Propaganda Department, and the Organization Department, and later did party affairs until his retirement.
Our interview with Mr. Zhuang Keming was conducted in Mr. Wang Yun's "Bronze" photography studio. Mr. Zhuang said that his family lived far away and it was inconvenient for us to fatigue, so he rushed to find us. Although he is almost 80 years old, he is full of energy and good health.
I asked directly: Do you have a collection of cameras?
He said: Collection, at most, nearly 1,000 units, most of which are domestic cameras.
I asked again: how many years have you been collecting cameras, why don't you keep in touch with the outside? Why don't the camera collectors know about you?
He smiled and said: It may be because of the nature of the work, and there is not much contact with the outside world. And railway insiders know that he likes to collect cameras.
He said that there is a colleague surnamed Shi who also likes to collect domestic cameras, and the two often go out to buy cameras together, and they usually communicate together. Therefore, he is not alone in his camera collection.
He also said that because of the lack of contact with the outside world, he had no idea who was collecting cameras in China. He only knows three people in this circle: Zhao Zhenxin and Sun Yiwen in Shanghai, and Guo Tieshi in the Northeast.
Mr. Zhao Zhenxin has been to the "China Camera Historical Museum" in Shanghai several times, and Sun Yiwen has been to the second-hand camera store opened by Sun Yiwen many times, and he has also bought his camera. One of the Seagull 501 cameras with ** inscription cost 3,000 yuan to get it that year. Later, Mr. Sun asked him if the 501 could be returned to him, and he was willing to pay 7,000 yuan to buy it back, but Mr. Zhuang politely refused.
For "Guo Tieshi", he has read a lot of his articles, and knows that Guo Tieshi understands cameras, has rich knowledge, and has a lot of information. Of course, at this time, he already knew that Guo Tieshi was Li Hui, the current "book shadow".
He said that he likes to collect a wide range of things, not only cameras, but also ancient coins, badges, musical instruments, Silk Road relics, Muslim culture and many other fields. Although I liked cameras relatively early, the idea of having a collection of cameras was in the mid-eighties.
I'm curious, Ningxia is not only remote, but the city is small and the population is not large, can there be so many camera resources for you to collect? He said, "I have the advantage of collecting cameras, as long as the railway arrives, I can go and collect cameras."
The scope of his camera collection went south to Shanghai, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, and Chongqing; North to Beijing, Tianjin and northeast Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin. These places were relatively wealthy in the early years, and there were more old cameras, so you could find things.
Although he does not interact with people in the collection industry, he is still familiar with the cultural markets and thrift resources in various places. He made a point of mentioning the Shenyang Nanhu thrift market. He said that in the early years, there were a lot of things there, and it was cheap, the peony double-reflex camera was only 20 yuan, and the Seagull 4b was only 30 yuan. Every time, he would buy it in a box and bring it back to Yinchuan by train, which was safe and convenient without freight.
He also frequents second-hand camera shops in stall markets in Tianjin, Beijing and Shanghai. He bought a lot of old cameras, and he also collected camera materials, various newspapers and information. After a lot of collection, reading, and research, I gradually learned about the history, production and production of Chinese cameras, as well as the structure, performance and repair of cameras.
So I sorted out these materials and came up with the idea of publishing a book. He said that the railway department has its own printing plant, and it is very convenient to print and publish books. Prior to this, he had published two books on cameras, with a small print run, both of which were given to friends who like to collect. Later, someone persuaded him to publish it officially, and introduced him to the president of Ningxia Publishing House.
Although the other party was very supportive of him, because it was not to sell books to make money, the 7,000 yuan book number was still too expensive for him, so he gave up the regular publication of the book and chose to print it with the internal publication number of the "Ningxia Collection Association". The first 500 copies were printed, and since they were not official publications, he gave away all 500 copies for exchange among his friends.
He said that the book was all the information he had collected over the years, mainly from newspapers and magazines, and a small amount from the Internet. After collating the data checking, text writing, and ** shooting, he completed it alone, and the title of the book "Chinese Camera" was also written by himself. What I didn't expect was that this book caused a lot of repercussions in the camera collecting world, and it was difficult to satisfy the people who asked for the book. At this point, Mr. Zhao Zhenxin, the webmaster of China Camera Network, also hopes that he will print another batch so that more people can see this book.
So the second batch of 2,000 copies was printed. In addition to continuing to give away a part, most of the books were sent to Mr. Wang in Heihe, who paid 40 yuan each***
It was during this period that I bought 40 copies at a time from Mr. Heihe Wang. A small amount of them are "sold" in the form of 40 yuan in the form of postage on the SY916 network, and most of them are also given away. At that time, there were many people who liked domestic cameras in 916**, and they would bring a copy with them when they bought a camera.
Later, 916 was closed, and people who like domestic cameras still gave it away. Now the ** of this book is very high, and on the Confucius subnet, the ** of second-hand books are more than 1,000 yuan. A friend bought a copy for 600 yuan, and he was ecstatic, claiming to have "picked up the leak".
Mr. Zhuang said that the book was printed in two copies, a total of 2,500 copies, and that all of them are now in the collection. The two versions are identical on the inside except for some differences in the cover. The darker color of the cover is the first printing.
If you have bought this book, do you have which edition you have? If both versions are available, then bless you. This time we went to Yinchuan, we brought two books and asked Mr. Zhuang to inscribe them, which is also a rare inscription book. And for the inscription given to me, I specially asked him to inscribe "Guo Tieshi", which is also the pen name I have given up for more than ten years, let's keep the memory of the early years.
When I meet Mr. Zhuang this time, I hope that he will go out and talk more and communicate with friends from outside, especially in the old camera exchange activities between Beijing and Shanghai, where he will meet many camera collectors. Everyone knows him and wants to communicate with him, and although he is not familiar with other people, this circle is no stranger to him.
He told me that after retiring he opened an antique shop with a friend and handled some collectibles, about half of which the camera was processed, and the rest was piled up at home and not touched for many years.
He said that he has a wide range of hobbies, and collecting cameras is just a category at one stage in the collecting process. In the past two years, his books have become "popular", and there are still people asking him for or buying them, and he only has one copy in his hand. He also said that over the years, he has collected some more information, and friends from other places have also enthusiastically provided it, hoping that he can reprint it. However, so far, Mr. Zhuang is still hesitant whether to reprint the book.
Although Mr. Zhuang has been away from the "rivers and lakes" of camera collection over the years, people have been looking for him, and now he finally has the answer. This is not only an important thing for me personally, but also for the camera collecting circle, and Mr. Zhuang's book "Chinese Camera" can also be recorded in the history of camera collection.