Scenes in 1920s 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.

Scenes in 1920s Hong Kong

Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton
Hong Kong
1 Jan 1929
Silent
4m

A fascinating film about expat life in Hong Kong; featuring amazing views of open countryside, a steeplechase and frolics on the beach at Repulse Bay.

This remarkable film begins with views of the coastal waters around Hong Kong before showing Mrs Simpson, the filmmaker's wife, and her friend driving off into the countryside in an open-topped car. A steeplechase at the racecourse follows. Then the Simpsons are seen with their friends frolicking on the beach at Repulse Bay. The Repulse Bay Hotel appears in the distance though today the view is completely different.

William and Charlotte Simpson were joined by her brother, John Berkin, for the day on the beach at Repulse Bay. The Repulse Bay Hotel was demolished during the 1970s and 1980s and a shopping mall was constructed on part of its original site.

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From the collection

Hong Kong - Fragrant Harbour

Discover a Hong Kong before the tide of modernity swept all before it, a land of striking contrasts where old and new, European and Chinese shared a crowded island.

Hong Kong before the skyscraper: it's barely possible to imagine today. But this collection of films shows island life before the steel-and-glass towers and the elevated expressways, when Hong Kong and the neighbouring New Territories were still parts of a rugged but rapidly developing outpost of the British Empire.

Visit the genteel colonial centre, including the long-gone Hong Kong Club; explore the waterfront streets around Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, before the major land reclamations of the 60s and 70s pushed them inland. A few select landmarks in the footage can still be seen today, notably Aberdeen Bay, the Peak Tram and Victoria Harbour. But what these films preserve is a largely lost Hong Kong, a city whose recent past is vanishing and whose ever-shifting landscape is fading from recognition.

The films are rich in contrasts. Traditional Duanwu Festival dragon-boat racing share the waters with Royal Navy warships enjoying the interwar calm. While peasant farmers bend their backs in the New Territories paddy fields, expat Brits tour the colony in motorcars. As today's Hong Kong faces yet more uncertainty and change, these films highlight a very different time on the crowded island where East met West.