Filmed in the 1920s or early 1930s, this home movie was likely shot by Christian missionaries, and features delegates of the city of Hanzhou, Canton. The mission in question is very probably Congrégation du Cœur Immaculé de Marie – the Belgian Roman Catholic missionary congregation, established in 1865 in China and still present there.The footage starts by the scenes of everyday life for the water people of the Southern China and proceeds to show the missionary works of distributing food, clothing and giving some Western education in music to the local Chinese youth. The local delegates and congregation members are counted and written down in the Church registry with the traditional Chinese fingerprinting under names method.

The movie ends with a sti0ll of a boy getting his hair shaved for induction into the Catholic Church as an altar boy, probably.To 0:22 Ducks on a boat, man looking at the ducks 0:22-0:30 A throng of sampan boats at a river shore 0:30 Chinese shirt drying in the sun on the bamboo pole.0:39 Cat and kittens on the sampan0:46 A toddler0:50 A family going onto the sampan1:00-1:10 A boat, belonging to a restaurant, whose flag is waving above it 1:11-1:21 Shrimp paste salesmen with their goods on a stand. Women go back and forth in the foreground.1:22-1:30 Men on a sampan boat, smoking and chatting.1:30 -1:42 A boy, trying to tie his sampan down to another boat, in order to cross to it1:42 Woman, picking a sugar cane from the water and washing it.1:59 Another family on the sampan2:09 A market,2:17 Peeling a sugar cane2:26-2:36 Fisherwomen in characteristic work clothing and hats 2:37-2:57 Christian monastery portal, with the Republic of China flag and an angel statue, two flags – one with a catholic cross and another one with a stylized reliquary or a chalice, featuring a monogram « IM »(?) and several written signs only 2 of which are readable and.The monogram, suggests by it’s shape that it’s (C)IM(C) or Congrégation du Cœur Immaculé de Marie 3:01 More sampans 3:20-3:24 A group of people sitting on a sampan with a flag (in Chinese characters) « … yearly … of.. Hanzhou 3:24-3:57 Buffalo-driven water pump 4:03-4:08 A middle-class Chinese family looking at the cameraman 4:15 A shot of the forest 4:22-4:53 Wet and dry fields – rice, and wheat.4:54 A magpie, followed by another shot of a wet field overgrown by algae 5:06 A scarecrow, featuring an actual, live magpie nailed to it.5:16 Old man and a bicycle 5:22-5:37 Floating bamboo down a canal for processing 5:37 Man, carrying a large bamboo 5:46 Man, carrying baskets full of onions on a rocker 5:56 Wood on a wheelbarrow 6:22 Farmers, father and child, people carrying various farm tools, donkeys, etc.6:33-6:49 City gate. Looking from it onto the main street 6:49 A girl with flowers 6:51 Looking back onto a city gate, a restaurant or an auberge, on the left side of the frame 6:59-7:10 Old woman entering a hair salon, a boy having his hair cut while others look 7:10-8:04 The Old woman getting her head and face washed 8:30 Sitting and having themselves fanned with a bamboo leaf fan, very bad quality footage 8:30-8:34 Cooking rice porridge 8:34 Washing hands, towel etc. 9:01-10:47 Sharing food among the children and adults, children eating and drinking 10:47-11:28 Old bespectacled woman distributing clothing to the children who queue up to her11:29 Children, wearing their new clothing 11:45 A cute toddler, wearing his new oversized shirt sans pants, and a big hat 11:51-12:21 Distributing canned food 12:21-12:31 A boy, helping a younger boy put on his new pants, bespectacled old woman in the background gets up and goes out of the shot12:40-13:04 All the boys form a marching band 13:05-13:32 The boys having lined themselves up are whispering and talking among themselves joyously 13:32 Boys in the lineup, holding their canned food and their old clothes and laughing 13:45 Older boys in the marching band playing music 14:05 Registration process – the woman dips the delegate fingers into the ink and then presses it onto the paper, under their names.14:50-15:50 The adults are also happy having received a set of new clothes each. Walking around in the yard, talking and fanning themselves 15:50-16:10 Lining up for a photo, with a pastor, arriving in the b/g 16:36 Children sitting still for a photo16:46 Two boys talking, then surprised by camera and happy.17:09 A little boy picking his ear 17:38 A pastor shaving the head of a boy, for an induction into the church.

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