I found the clips of the entry of Nationalist troops into Peking in 1928 fascinating. Having studied the armies of warlord China for many years, film like this is essential to finding new information especially regarding uniforms, flags e.t.c. My observations on the film minute by minute are as follows:

07.14 – Northern or Ankuochun soldiers mill around in Peking with a number having modern sub-machine guns.

07.37 – The Ankuochun or Northern soldiers in possession of Peking have distinctive armbands which I believe are red with a blue band at top and bottom.

07.57 – A close up of one of Feng Yu-hsiang’s Kuominchun officers arriving in Peking. By 1928 Feng’s ‘Christian Army’ had joined Chiang Kai-shek’s National Revolutionary Army. The Kuominchun troops are easily distinguished by the straw hats they are wearing.

08.05 – A meeting between the Kuominchun officer and his Ankuochun counterpart to arrange the peaceful handover of the city.

08.36 – This Ankuochun flagbearer leads a column of Northern soldiers out of the city. His flag is a new type not seen before with a red field with three red stars running across a white band. Although the flag looks white it would be most unusual for the field of the flag not to be red.

08.54 – The marching Ankuochun troops are lead by a soldier with a small unit flag stuck into the barrel of his rifle. Smaller unit flags in Warlord Chinese armies usually caried Roman numerals as in this case with the number ’12′ on the flag.

I will be including my observations in my next book on Warlord Chinese Armies which is due to be published later this year. If anyone would like to ask any more detailed questions about the film please feel free to contact me (philipjowett@aol.com)

It is a big and pleasant surprise to see old China captured in such sharp motion pictures. Thank you for making the videos publicly accessible on YouTube!

The so-called 1958 “Dirty Bicker” was an especially controversial Bicker year. Despite the 100 percent admittance system, 23 students were refused eating club membership. Since 15 of them were Jewish, this provoked allegations of anti-Semitism.

“Identification of a candidate as a Jew, or from an old Baltimore family, as a Chinese or a Negro or as a member of any special group by accident of birth receives consideration by bicker-men,” David Lewit ’47 wrote in a 1949 article entitled “The Motivations of Bicker Men.”

[Robert] Givey, who was a senior in 1958, called the discrepancies in admittance that year “Princeton’s darkest hour.”