1947 Shanghai, China

Alice Chen
1943
Shanghai, China
September 16, 2019
by Audrey Coombe

At the time, we were living in a western, concrete building in the European-occupied part of ShangHai. The theaters near home showed mostly American films. The first movie I remember seeing is the original King Kong. It’s one of my earliest memories– I must have been around three or four years old, just a few years after the Second World War. 

My mom took me. I think the rest of my siblings were away at school, so the two of us were together most of the day. We could only afford tickets to one of those second or third-run theaters that showed pictures after they had their first runs in the main theaters. So even though King Kong came out in the 30s, Mom and I were seeing it like it was new in the mid to late 40s. 

In those times, people usually dressed up to see movies, but we didn’t have enough money for formal clothing. But at this theater, I’m not sure if anyone dressed up. I don’t think the theater even had a concession and mom definitely would not have spent money on candy. I was so enthralled by the screen, that didn’t matter to me. 

I don’t remember too much about the theater except that it was very dark. I remember sitting in one of the middle rows of seats. I was so short that I didn’t even fold the seat down. In order to see, I just sat on top of it with my legs crossed.

I was so terrified during the entire movie. As King Kong climbed the Empire State Building, using windows as steps, screaming, and grabbing airplanes, I kept sinking deeper and deeper into my seat, not wanting to look at the screen, but took curious not too. I put my hands in front of my face, spreading my fingers so I could see through them. 

It’s funny looking back at clips and posters from that time now. The movie looks so artificial. The monster’s movement is choppy and awkward, especially compared to the effects in sci-fi movies now, but at the time, it all looked so real. I had never seen anything like it, so it was entirely believable. The only entertainment we had was through books, and other than a few street performers here and there, there was nothing really visual. This was the first time seeing a story told through pictures like this. 

We moved from ShangHai to Taiwan in the spring of 1949 before Mao’s communist troop took over mainland China. My walk home from high school was along a commercial street. There were always artists working here. They were busy hand painting displays above theaters. I would watch them paint these beautiful, life size movie posters and I was so intrigued. But at that point, we didn’t have enough money to go out– even to the discount theaters. However, Dad worked for a company at the time which would occasionally show movies for the benefit of its workers. They gave out free tickets from the government and movies were shown in a state-run, all-purpose auditorium. Most of my memories from these screenings are of the newsreels they would show before the films started, my being bored, and waiting for them to end.

In college, going to the movies was a big part of my social life with friends. We would take the public bus or walk to the theater after class. I mostly remember American musicals from the 50s like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I loved watching Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, and I saw Gone With the Wind so many times. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t understand most of the dialogue. The actors were so expressive that you could tell what was happening by their faces, the way they moved their hands… Comedies like Laurel and Hardy movies and all of Charlie Chaplin’s films were also very popular. Chaplin was especially great because he was physical, graceful and hilarious. I loved the soundtracks to his movies. With the music guiding the story, you forgot you were watching something in a completely different language. 

Beginning with King Kong, so much of what I watched was foreign– the places, the people, the language, the culture, sometimes the movies were from a different decade, but the acting was so gripping, the stories were always so real to me.