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Topical Budget 954-1: High Jinks for 'Chinks' (1929)
 

BFI

Main image of Topical Budget 954-1: High Jinks for 'Chinks' (1929)
 
5/12/1929
35mm, black and white, silent, 68 feet
 
Production CompanyTopical Film Company

Chinese revellers enjoy a new funfair that has just opened in Shanghai.

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Despite an unfortunate name and introductory title card that describes the local population as "John Chinaman", this newsreel item is a lovely record of a newly-opened Great World Amusement Park, known as 'Shanghai's Coney Island'. Unlike the other Topical Budget newsreels made in Shanghai in this period, no Western people are seen; the film focuses instead on the Chinese people enjoying the rides (some Japanese women, part of the international community in Shanghai, are also seen).

The fashions of the time are interesting: the men are mostly wearing Western-style clothing, complete with fedoras or newsboy caps, while the women retain more traditional cheongsam. The men's dress suggests that the people visiting the fairground were upper class, as the Chinese elite were among the early adopters of Western tailoring.

The camerawork in this item is relatively poetic compared to other Topical Budget films, moving in time with the Ferris wheels, waltzer and swing carousel, and lingering on a family enjoying a ride on the Caterpillar. The funfair was active until at least 1936, when it was mentioned in a tourist guide for Westerners that suggested people visit to experience a real taste of Shanghai metropolitan life.

Lucy Smee

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Complete item (1:07)
GALLERY / SCRIPTS / AUDIO
SEE ALSO
Topical Budget 812-2: Our Boys (1927)
Topical Budget 815-1: A City of Chaos (1927)
Topical Budget 815-2: Marines Arrive in Shanghai (1927)