COLLECTION NAME:
Leroy H. Miller Collection
Record
Collection Name:
Leroy H. Miller collection
Title:
Canton, China
Name:
[The Bray Studios]
Resource Type:
Moving image
Genre:
silent films
Genre:
travelog (performed works genre)
Genre:
Amateur films
Date Created:
1929/1936
Language Term:
English
Extent:
1 film reel (18 min., 22 sec.)
Form:
16mm (photographic film size)
Form:
black-and-white film (film, material)
Form:
tint (color effect)
Abstract:
Title from film container. Reel combines possibly original travel footage by Leroy H. Miller (ca. 1929) with descriptive intertitles, offering information and commentary from the perspective of an American traveler (ca. 1936). May also contain footage acquired by Miller from other sources. Title cards include Orientalist font and caricature drawings. Title card introduces Canton (now Guangzhou). Views include panning shot of the city, a water tower, temple, boat in the harbor, and busy street scenes. Includes images of a meat market, food, people pushing carts, a man writing, a military parade, and a procession of people carrying objects. One title card reads "Everyone in the lane is busy, carving ivory, weaving silks, painting lanterns, selling fruits, having their heads shaved, smoking or gambling or going to jail."
Note Type:
Segment sequence
Note:
As original, historical material, some of the language used and opinions shared in these films - especially regarding topics of race, gender, class religion, and ability - do not reflect the current preferred terminology of individuals of marginalized identities, or the values and norms of the CU Boulder Archives.
Note:
00:00:00 Kwang-Chow-Fu is the real name of the city we call "Canton" in the land we call China--- 00:00:06 There is nothing dull or colorless about "MAIN STREET" 00:00:23 Some plazas are reposeful --- 00:00:34 But the streets are throbbing arteries-feverish-congested --- 00:01:06 Processions pass ---Weddings?-or funerals? equally fantastic --- 00:02:05 Above the maze of animated alleys rise the skeletons of the watch tower --- 00:02:14 Have you ever studied an ant-hill through a microscope? --- 00:02:47 The prosperous pawn-shops of China are the original Oriental sky-scrapers --- 00:03:08 But certain parts of old Canton are being modernized --- 00:03:19 Rikshas foreign to the inner city now roll along the modern front --- 00:03:56 But ancient Kwang-Chow-Fu remains a city of pagodas --- 00:04:20 Everybody in every lane is busy, -- carving ivory, weaving silks, painting lanterns, selling fruits, having their heads shaved, smoking or gambling or going to jail. 00:05:23 Shopping is made easy by restricting each lane to merchandise of a kind. Thus fireworks are sold only in "Fire Cracker Street." The Bray Studios. 00:06:39 A meat market. 0006:58 We see many strange sights on the streets. 00:07:20 And in the vaults of Heavenly Peace Street, you store away your defunct mother-in-law, until the gods permit her to be removed to Cemetery Hill. 00:10:49 Human power is cheaper than horsepower--Women do the heavy work. 00:11:19 More interesting street scenes 00:13:46 Our guide has lunch at a resteraunt. 00:13:55 We go back to the boat for ours. 00:14:14 Another section of our party arrives. 00:14:35 Main street of Canton is known as the Bund. 00:15:25 One sees soldiers everywhere in China. 00:15:47 Hunting for scenes and one's reward. 00:15:52 A study of Chinese customs, and of sampan life. 00:18:22 End of recording
Subject Topic:
Transportation
Subject Topic:
City and town life
Subject Topic:
Rickshaws
Subject Topic:
Pagodas
Subject Topic:
Ivory carving
Subject Topic:
Silk weaving
Subject Topic:
Selling--Fruit
Subject Topic:
Haircutting
Subject Topic:
Shopping
Subject Geographic:
China--Guangzhou
Identifier:
U183050939453_narv_millerLeroy_6-5_cantonChina_a.mp4
Internet Media Type:
video/mp4
Digital Origin:
reformatted digital
Access Condition:
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).