Manchuria (silent, 1930s)

Creator: A/V Geeks 16mm Films

Description: This 1930s footage of Manchuria China offers a window into daily life, rituals, and industrial progress in an urban setting. It begins with bustling city streets, storefronts, and buildings adorned with Chinese characters, interspersed with scenes of a funeral procession and a religious ceremony drawing spectators. Factories hum with machinery, while construction sites reveal efforts to build and even battle fire. A playground with children swinging offers a softer, humanizing contrast. The narrative flows to bustling docks where crowds gather as people board boats, and serene shots of boats gliding through water. This collection encapsulates the vibrancy and complexity of 1930s urban life. A viewer commented: At 50 seconds to 1:24 of the video, an Orthodox funeral is recorded. The place is Holy Dormition Church in Harbin City. The Church was laid on June 29/July 12, 1907 at the new cemetery in Harbin. Archbishop Evsevy (Eusebius) of Vladivostok consecrated the church on November 22/December 5, 1908 in the name of the Dormition of the Theotokos. For more information, you can read: https://www.orthodox.cn/localchurch/harbin/harbindormition_en.htm This church and the bell tower (above the arch) can be clearly seen in the video. From the 1910s to the 1950s, this was the Harbin Orthodox Cemetery & Jewish Cemetery. Tens of thousands of Orthodox and Jews were buried there, and in the 1950s, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the cemeteries were moved to the outskirts of the city. After and through the Cultural Revolution, this church was abandoned and once became an arcade game room. This place was established as an amusement park with a Ferris wheel and rides. The church and the bell tower still remain, but they are in a state of disrepair. In the 2000s, some Chinese TV dramas whose plots took place in the 1930s were filmed here. In 2024, the local government restored the church. The building that appears at 1:31 to 1:50 of the video is supposed to be the Shenyang (formerly Mukden) train station with the street in front of the station. The place that appears at 4:54 to 5:15 of the video is supposed to be Dalian Zhongshan Square. Most of the buildings are still well preserved today. More information about this square and related buildings can be read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Buildings_on_Zhongshan_Square_in_Dalian Email us at footage@avgeeks.com if you have questions about the footage and are interested in using it in your project.

Online Copy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhhipZQ-EPg

Metadata Source:YouTube