(This is our third post about the films of diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray. See the first post for more background.)

On February 24, 1928, MacMuray, his Chinese secretary, and a naval attaché started a six-week trip along the Yangtze (Yangzi) river to inspect consulates and ports between Tsingtao (Qingdao) and Chungking. MacMurray, who took his camera along, painstakingly listed the ships, ports, and towns he filmed in passing, as well as the treacherous rapids and gorges between Shasi and Kweifu (Yangtszelists.pdf). “This Upper Yangtze trip is the most beautiful I have ever made,” he wrote his mother on March 13. The three films that MacMurray shot aboard four ships are featured here. The only reference to the political context of the films is an inconspicuous boat that represented, according to MacMurray’s notes, the “American Consulate at Nanking, temporarily at Chinkiang.” Since its capture in March 1927, Nanking (Nanjing) had been the capital of the Nationalist Party, which was, by the time of MacMurray’s trip, in control of most of South China. During the trip, MacMurray met the Nationalist Party’s foreign minister Huang (Hwang) Fu, and negotiated a settlement of the “Nanking incident,” an outburst of anti-foreign sentiments during the capture of Nanking one year before. This would pave the way for the Tariff Treaty of July 25, 1928, which,  one month after the Nationalists took control of Peking, was a de facto recognition of the Nationalist regime of China.

Above: “The American Consulate at Nanking, temporarily at Chinkiang.” Photo printed on a postcard to MacMurray’s mother on May 13, 1928  (John Van Antwerp MacMurray Papers, box 26)

MacMurray’s first “Yangtsze” film begins with some brief footage in Tsinanfu, followed by outdoor scenes in Tsingtao, where administrator general Chao Chi (Zhao Qi) took MacMurray, who loved dogs, to a training session of police dogs (1:15). The destroyer USS Noa took MacMurray’s party to Shanghai, where they boarded the USS Isabel a few days later to sail to Chinkiang (Zhenjiang), and to Anking (Anqing). In Chinkiang the group paid a visit to Silver Island (Jiao Shan, 4:34), where MacMurray filmed temple scenes and a paper rubbing shop. At Chinkiang harbor MacMurray captured the Standard Oil house boat, mentioned above, where the American Consulate at Nanking was temporarily based (3:55). In Anking the party boarded SS Kungwo to Hankow (Hankou), where they were joined by Consul-General Frank Lockhart for the remainder of the journey to Chungking. The journey between Hankow and Chungking and back to Hankow (March 8-22) was traveled on river gunboat USS Guam with Admiral Yates Stirling, commander of the Yangtze Patrol. After passing Shashi and the Tiger’s Tooth Gorge, the film ends with harbor and street scenes in Ichang, where MacMurray and his party arrived on March 11.

The second Yangztze film documents the journey through the Yangtze Gorges on the upper river between Ichang and the city at the other end of the Gorges, known as Kweifu (now called Fengjie Xian). The footage ends with salt boiling at Kweifu (11:07) and some riverbank scenes with gondola-like boats that, according to MacMurray in a postcard to his mother, were native to Kweifu.

The contents of “Yangtsze III,” which continues the journey to Chungking, are not listed by MacMurray. During a stop, possibly at Wanhsien (Wanxian), MacMurray filmed the building of a boat, as well as some other riverbank scenes (2:54). The footage that follows includes a close up of MacMurray’s party with Admiral Yates Stirling (4:56), under whose command the USS Guam was sailing. Upon arrival in Chungking the party apparently visited local warlord Liu Hsiang (Liu Xiang 5:40). Subsequent footage contains street scenes and the waterfront of Chungking. The Yangtze footage that follows was filmed on the way back to Hankow. It includes the Precious Stone Rock (Shibaozhai) in Zhong Xian, a steep natural rock with pagoda that was passed on the Northern river bank.

Right: Liu Hsiang, photo portrait in the John Van Antwerp MacMurray Papers (box 120)

Previous posts about the films of John Van Antwerp MacMurray:

• MacMurray’s films of China, 1925-1929 (including “Kalgan”)
• Trip to attend the reinterment of Sun Yat-sen, 1929

Foreign representatives accompanying the bier. Detail from a 9 feet long print of the procession (John Van Antwerp MacMurray Papers, box 81 folder 5).

On June 1, 1929, the body of Sun Yat-sen, leader of the Nationalist Party, who died and was buried in Peking (Beijing) in 1925, was reinterred in a new mausoleum in Nanking (Nanjing). The newly established Nationalist government invited the foreign diplomats in Peking (Beijing) to attend the ceremony. Two of the three films that MacMurray labeled “Peking I-III’ turn out to capture the trip to Nanking in the “ministers train” and back. Although MacMurray did not film the ceremony itself, “Peking II” includes rare footage of the procession of Sun’s body from his original burial place to the train station in Peking. The films below are shown in reverse order (III, II, I), as it appears MacMurray mis-numbered the films.

This film begins with scenes in Beihai Park in Peking, which include footage of soldiers, followed by local sites and scenes, including the Summer Palace. It ends with footage of who we believe is José Gallostra y Coello de Portugal, the secretary of the Spanish legation. During the train trip Gallostra drew caricatures of his colleagues, which he published in a satirical journal for French expatriates in Peking. MacMurray, whose caricature is shown on the left, sent a copy to his chief Stanley Hornbeck, with the comment that Gallostra had a “genius for caricature and an irrepressible spirit of mockery” (19 July, 1929). In the film featured here, Gallostra, who is impersonating different characters, seems to be mimicking the prescribed behavior of the diplomatic representatives when paying their last respects to Sun Yat-sen. During a ceremony on May 31, prior to the reinterment, each minister placed a wreath at the foot of the dais at the headquarters of the Nationalist Party, where the embalmed body lay in state. The three bows while moving forward and backward can be found in descriptions of the ceremony. (Our thanks to Shuwen Cao, East Asian Library, Princeton University for clarifying this).

The second film in the series begins with village scenes in the Western Hills, where diplomats and their families spent much of their free time. The film includes footage of MacMurray and his family, probably at the temple Ta Pei Ssu, where they leased living accommodations. MacMurray filmed additional street and temple scenes, followed by a local fair and other village scenes.

The third film continues the previous footage on the Taianfu station and includes harvesting scenes that were filmed along the Jinpu railroad on the way to Nanking. The brief footage of Sun Yat-sen’s mausoleum (0:28) was shot prior to the funeral, as MacMurray did not film the official ceremony. This is followed by street scenes in Nanking, where MacMurray filmed silk thread making and other local scenes.

American diplomat John Van Antwerp MacMurray (1881-1960) began filming in 1925, two years after Kodak introduced the Cine-Kodak Motion Picture camera, which made production and display of motion pictures possible for amateurs. The John Van Antwerp MacMurray Papers at Mudd Manuscript Library contain twenty-eight silent 16mm films, which MacMurray shot while serving as Minister to China (1925-1929). Although the country was divided by civil war and Nationalists took control of Peking (Beijing) in June 1928, the films are not political in nature. They contain street and other local scenes in Peking, the Western Hills, and other places that MacMurray visited. A finding aid to the John Van Antwerp MacMurray Papers at Mudd Manuscript Library may be found at http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/wh246s13m .