A Peking Opera actress strikes a pose.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Beijing Postcards regularly organizes lectures and exhibitions for people interested in the history of the city. Their latest topic of research is the liberation of Chinese women.

Beneath the photo of the woman with bound feet, there is a caricature from an old French magazine that depicts a Chinese woman with a cigarette in her mouth and her hands in her pockets.

"The role of Chinese women evolved dramatically during the 1920s and 1930s. After the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) abdicated, Manchu families lost their government subsidies, and women started to take jobs outside the home like men. Some of them even took up jobs as rickshaw drivers. But every job gave them wider access to public spaces," he adds.

Thom says just because we live in a city, it doesn't mean that it's easy to develop a relationship with it. He thinks these photos will help us understand how Beijing became the city it is today.