Original subtitles

From the USSR Gosfilmofond collection

The Shanghai Document

This picture was made during Sovkino's expedition to Shanghai in 1927.

The author/principal: Yakov Bliokh The co-author/camera operator: V. Stepanov

The assistant/editor: L. Filonov Titles by: V. Pertsov

The population of China is 475 million.

Millions of former slaves have been forever merged

with the Soviet state by the Chinese Revolution.

Canton, Shanghai, Wuhan are the names of Chinese cities that are familiar to each of us...

Following the Whangpoo river, ocean-going steamships approach Shanghai.

Chinese junks are awaiting work.

Foreign war ships are the masters of this port.

The dock for foreign trade companies.

China is coveted by dealers and profiteers of all kinds.

Shanghai - a global port and China's largest work centre.

In 1926 over 200 million pounds of goods were transferred through Shanghai.

For half-rouble per day.

To unload a steamship full of coal they need approximately 40,000 baskets.

At 14 o'clock - everyone has done 200 baskets.

Goods are brought to steamships by junks.

As a whole family...

He's operating the crane winches.

From the docks to warehouses - on their shoulders.

Not everyone in the port is equally busy.

On their own yachts.

On speedboats.

The masters of the port.

The population of Shanghai is over 2 million.

The wealthy deceased.

The poor.

For a modest pay, they dress up for an splendour.

The poor of Shanghai hustle and grind from early morning until late at night.

They make knives...

They weave...

They also weave roofs...

Tired.

They carve

ornaments.

The poor are tricked by the street jugglers.

They make shoes...

The street kitchen.

At the marketplace.

"Fortune telling".

"Asking the Buddha for protection".

In between work.

From this busy Chinese beehive the foreign quarters and the concessions

are hostilely and cautiously fenced off with barbed wire.

On the wide streets of the foreign-owned property - not all Chinese are allowed here.

An English parade.

The borders of the concessions are protected by the colonial forces - the Annamites.

The foreign police are protecting Chinese bankers and industrialists.

In the exquisite gardens by their mansions,

they play the ancient game of "MaJiang".

Foreign schools are at a service of new generation of Chinese bourgeois.

Mimicking Europeans, bourgeois youths hurry to participate in a sporting event.

Rickshaws are running faster than horses.

In two years, a rickshaw driver becomes an invalid.

At the horse-racing.

The jockeys are exclusively English.

The Chinese bourgeois are flattered to play alongside foreigners at the horse-racing.

Rich Chinamen are having a good time on the roofs of multi-storey shops.

They are especially fond of the increasingly rare marionette theatre.

Chinese theatres feature the same plays as 300 - 400 years ago.

The foxtrot - the latest achievement of "the European culture".

Time quietly flies by...

In the evening, junks are coming back from work.

The Chinese bourgeois are having lavish celebrations in honour of foreign imperialists.

Foreign firms and banks,

are in control of half the factories and plants in Shanghai.

At the match factory.

In the atmosphere dense with poisonous white phosphorus...

women and children work 12 hours per day.

For 15 hours a day they carry backbreaking loads.

A rickshaw factory,

is readying thousands of "carriages" for hire.

In the foreign quarters,

under constant military protection,

the masters

are training to play "land-ball",

in order to maintain their figures.

The human horses are getting hot.

"Dear foreigners".

"The European culture".

At a children's party held by a foreign concessionaire.

The carousel is put in motion by a Chinaman.

Chinese kids.

At the silk factory.

From the age of six.

8 kopecks for 12 hours work.

Women - 30 kopecks for 12 hours work.

Babies are under the loom with no supervision.

By the looms,

little proletarians are being raised.

A hundred thousand kids work in Shanghai factories.

Metal workers - the forefront of the Shanghai proletariat.

Textile workers - the mightiest force of the Shanghai's proletariat.

Factories offer gruelling, low-paying work.

They pass their modest homemade food over the factory fence.

They live on the outskirts, in poverty and dirt.

Not enough space on the ground.

Over the last few years, strikes are getting more frequent.

Thanks to their persistent struggle involving a large number of workers,

in March of 1927, just before the intrusion of Southern armies,

Shanghai is finally in the hands of the revolting proletariat.

Armed workers' brigades.

Around the foreign quarters, fortifications were hastily built.

Patrol airplanes flew around.

Foreign troops were quickly deployed, posing a threat to a revolutionary city.

Indians.

Revolutionary workers and students are carrying the portrait of Sun Yat-sen.

Rally after rally.

Representing the enslaved India.

For the foreigners' protection, regular forces were deployed.

General Chiang Kai-shek - the traitor of the Chinese Revolution, is making a speech.

They were ready to use machine-guns against the revolting workers.

The searches started in the working-class districts.

General Chiang Kai-shek demanded

immediate retribution.

Disarmed workers are taken

to the execution.

At the foreign concessions,

imperialists are testing their powers...

At the working-class' quarters...

Fearing new inevitable revolts, cruisers and torpedo boats get combat-ready.

Fortifications continue to be erected

against the working-class,

against the heroic Shanghai proletariat,

who maintained an iron-strong will to win a victory.

To the generals' treason, and the terror, the workers responded by organizing mass strikes.

The End.