Wang Xiaoting 王小亭 (1900–1981)

On August 28, 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army attacked the Shanghai South Railway Station in the context of the escalating Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Among the photographers who were on the scene was Chinese cameraman and photojournalist Wang Xiaoting 王小亭 (1900–1981), who took an image centered on a crying Chinese baby sitting alone in the ruins of the destroyed railway station. The photograph circulated globally and became a symbol of the war in China. This chapter examines Wang Xiaoting’s rise to fame and the transnational reception of his famous photograph through the lens of the Bourdieusian understanding of journalists as cultural intermediaries. By carefully contextualizing the image, its accompanying texts, and its subsequent transnational circulation, this chapter traces how Wang’s work and agency as a journalist were portrayed in various publication contexts. In applying Bourdieu’s concept of cultural intermediaries to a transnational framework, this chapter offers a case study on diverging perspectives in various journalistic circles where power and authority were unevenly distributed, and their strategies in the battle for legitimacy.