University of South Carolina University Libraries

Of special interest: “Fox Movietone News Collection.”  Outakes and short films from the 1930s that attempt to document cultural life and social conditions in Taiwan (4 short features), Japan (51) and China (46–includes 10 related to Manchukuo).

British MovieTone Digital Archive

British Movietone

Hundreds of short features about news items from the 1920s through the 1970s and beyond. Many clips shot in East Asia.  Good search engine.

The March Toward War: The March of Time as Documentary and Propaganda

Mary Wood, American Studies Program at the University of Virginia

Essays, timelines, and “March of Time” newsreels relating to World War II.  There are several reels relating to China and Japan under the tab “War Zones” linked to “Japanese Conquests, Chinese Resistance.”

British Pathé

British Pathé company

Over 85,000 newsreel films uploaded to YouTube. High quality video and audio, with a single search box.

Travel Film Archive

A company that licenses footage.

The Travel Film Archive is a collection of travelogues and educational and industrial films – many of them in color – that show the world the way it was between 1900 and 1970. Our holdings include archives of the renowned travel filmmakers Burton Holmes, Andre de la Varre, and James A. FitzPatrick, as well as footage shot by many other intinerant cameramen.

Internet Archive: Movie Archive

San Francisco based NGO.

A comprehensive collection of public domain films, texts, and other media. Includes documentaries, propaganda films, and news shorts from East Asia.

Links to Reels

Korea

James A. Fitzpatrick TravelTalk: “Siam to Korea“

A little over 3 minutes of footage from 1931 Seoul. Street scenes and people; the narrator is making fun of “primitive Korea.” The footage reproduces many of the scenes found in Japanese picture postcards of Korea.

Taiwan

“Native Trading Posts”

There is an edited version, and an outtakes version, of newsreel footage of a Japanese trading post in Taiwan, ca. 1930.  The location is 角板山, a famous stopping-off point for travelers to the mountainous interior of Taiwan.  The scene features a Japanese policeman issuing instructions through a boy interpreter and women bringing raw materials and cloth to a trading post in exchange for mirrors, whistles, and presumably other goods.

Taiwanese marketplace–outtakes

“Scenes of people and vendors in an active Taiwanese marketplace, including a musician demonstrating a bowed Chinese instrument for a crowd, a salesmen selling belts.” 1930