Screen Archive South East is a public sector moving image archive serving the South East of England. The archive's collections of magic lantern slides, films, videos and associated materials capture the many varied aspects of life, work and creativity from the early days of screen history to the present day and serve as a rich and invaluable historical resource.
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Street scenes in Shanghai
A Dragon Festival tops the bill in this atmospheric look at life in the streets, parks and harbourside of 1930s Shanghai.
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Overview
This film captures life in Shanghai and in the surrounding countryside. Street performers, acrobats and a 'human pile-driver' are seen hard at work. A Dragon Festival passes through the streets while Europeans converse with Chinese peasants. City dwellers of all nations relax in Shanghai's parks as street traffic gives way to a river cruise. Gliding past a variety of river traffic, dainty bridges and hill-top pagodas we return to see junks at their moorings in Shanghai.
Richard Martin, the maker of this film, was a member of the Shanghai Municipal Police, which acted independently of any Chinese jurisdiction in the city's International Settlement. Though China and Japan were engaged in vicious fighting in other parts of the Chinese mainland it was not until the 8th December 1941 that Japan finally invaded the previously neutral International Settlement thus completing their occupation of Shanghai in its entirety. However, it was not until 1943 that all American and European citizens of belligerent countries, who were resident in Shanghai, were finally sent to internment camps by the Japanese occupiers. Richard Martin was himself interned in Poodong Camp in 1942.
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