At Home in Shanghai and a Trip to Hong Kong

From the collection of

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton collects, preserves, catalogues and provides public access to its collection of films and magic lantern slides. The collection charts the rise of screen culture in the region and the nation and captures many aspects of life, work and creativity in the South East from the late 19th century to the present day. It is available for research, screenings, creative re-use and commercial access.

At Home in Shanghai and a Trip to Hong Kong

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton
Shanghai
1928-01-01
Silent
3m

Chinese junks and British battleships appear together in this film depicting the 1928 Armistice Day in Hong Kong.

This remarkable film shows the filmmakers, William and Charlotte Simpson, posing in their Shanghai garden before they are seen playing shuffleboard aboard the S.S. President McKinley en-route to Hong Kong. Chinese junks can be seen jostling alongside British battleships and liners. The film then shows the wreath laying ceremony at Hong Kong's Cenotaph on Armistice Day. The final scenes show the Simpsons at home and William is seen wearing his Remembrance Day poppy.

The carrier seen in this film is quite possibly HMS Hermes, the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, though not the first to be commissioned. Until 1938 she spent many years on patrol in Chinese waters before becoming a training ship in the Home Fleet. Recommissioned into the Eastern Fleet she was eventually sunk by Japanese dive-bombers near Sri Lanka in April 1942.

The First World War: Remembrance

These poignant films return us to a time when the war was still fresh.

The First World War came to an end at 11am on 11 November 1918 - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - a day that was immediately commemorated as Armistice Day (Remembrance Sunday was an innovation of the Second World War). The annual parades and wreath laying became a staple of the newsreels, and subsequently television.

But the act of remembrance began long before the guns stopped firing. During the war, cinemas across the country regularly screened 'Roll of Honour' films, paying tribute to members of the local community who had been killed, captured or wounded in the conflict. And of course, while the war itself faded into history, filmmakers would revisit those world-shattering years for generations after.