China on Film

The very first films of China present a surprising variety of daily life during the last decade of the Qing Dynasty. Shot by amateur foreign cameramen, they show the bustling street life of Shanghai’s Nanjing Road in 1900, and more intimate vignettes of ordinary Chinese in their homes and at work.

This episode flaunts the first-ever colour film of China - capturing a unique moment in Beijing's history. Other films show Shanghai in the jazz age, the new middle class enjoying a funfair, and mission schools and hospitals set up in the countryside. All before the war years descend on China.