In Shanghai in 1930, Gu Manting opened a small photo studio in a quiet rainy alley. What she photographed was not dignitaries, but ordinary people - children in the alley, rickshaw drivers, and flower girls. For each photo, she handwritten the date and a blessing. A young man who was preparing to go to the front came to take a family photo. She developed two photos, one for him to take away, and one for the family. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, her photo studio became a focal point for delivering news. She used a camera to record Shanghai during the war and hid the negatives under the floor. After the war, those photos became precious historical materials. Gu Manting said: "What I took is not a photo, but a memory of an era."
