The Cityscape of Early Hong Kong

The cinematic experience first began when the Lumière brothers from France filmed a collection of footage documenting real life, such as Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory and Arrival of a Train at a Station, in 1895. The siblings then sent its staff all over the world to make visual recordings with this innovative technology, as well as to attract audiences through showcasing the novel moving images they produced.

Records indicate that the earliest moving images of Hong Kong were shot in 1898 by the Edison Company. The six shorts, namely Government House at Hong Kong, Sikh Artillery, Hong Kong, Street Scene in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Wharf Scene and Hong Kong Regiment 1 & 2, came to four minutes. Although the camerawork in these travelogues was basic and the images somewhat blurred, it is not difficult for one to catch glimpses of the landscape in 19th Century Hong Kong when watching them.

The footage captured includes soldiers operating a canon or undergoing military drills, trading houses in Sheung Wan, warehouses in Whampoa Kowloon. Pedestrians, rickshaws and coolies are occasionally seen.

Since the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, more and more film companies from the West began sending cinematographers to China to make travelogues, documentaries, as well as films which reconstruct historical events. Hong Kong became a filming hotspot among Westerners after the Opium Wars. Pioneer travelogue maker, Burton Holmes, is one of many video-graphers. He came to Hong Kong in 1901, 1906 and 1913, capturing porters, rickshaw pullers, architectures and streetscapes on film. Enrico Lauro, who once settled in Shanghai and recorded footage of the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor’s funeral, also documented the festivities which took place in Hong Kong during King George V’s coronation in 1911.

Most of the documentaries made by foreigners in Hong Kong are of the city as seen through their eyes. Nonetheless, they serve as valuable references. For example, Hong Kong Sceneries (1930s), is believed to be shot by a Westerner. With a total running time of 40 minutes, it provides a detailed illustration of Hong Kong’s topography and urban landscape, including a full view of Victoria Harbour.