China's first film was Dingjun Mountain, while China's first news documentary was the Wuhan War, which reflected the course of the Xinhai Revolution, shot in Wuhan in 1911. Zhu Liankui, the magician who made the film, was the first Chinese artist to achieve great success in American and Western performing arts, and his influence was phenomenal.
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In the mainland research literature on Zhu Liankui, his name is often written as "Zhu Liankui". However, when he and his family visited Shakespeare's house in 1914, he signed a guestbook with the words "Zhu Liankui".
Zhu Liankui's own signature
Zhu Liankui was born in Suncheon Province (present-day Beijing) and was a clerk in a trading house in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and San Francisco, so Zhu Liankui knew about the United States for a long time. Zhu Liankui is a hobbyist and often performs among colleagues and customers to enliven the atmosphere and make friends. With the improvement of the level of juggling and the wide network of others, Zhu Liankui simply set up the "Zhu Liankui Juggling Class" in Tianjin to perform in Shanghai, Tianjin and other places.
In 1898, the United States hosted the Trans-Mississippi River Exposition (Omaha Exposition), which was a very high-specification exposition that year, and was personally announced by the President of the United States. On April 16, Zhu Liankui's team performed at the expo, shocking the audience with ancient Chinese color tricks, making the "China Village" at the expo the most crowded venue.
During his trip to the United States, Zhu Liankui used the stage name "Ching Ling Foo", which is also his most widely known name in the world. In the United States, he performed many famous magic tricks, such as "spitting out a hundred feet", "fishing with an empty rod", "shredding paper is finished", the most amazing of which is the ancient color trick "big bowl of flying water". This is a very old magic trick, which has appeared in the Song Dynasty for nearly a thousand years. Chinese artists have developed it for generations, and Zhu Liankui showed it to the world for the first time.
Towards the end of the expo, Zhu Liankui was praised by the American media as "the most powerful magician in the United States." On October 31, the Union Square Theater in New York signed a contract with Zhu Liankui, making it the first Chinese magician to sign a contract with an American theater.
Zhu Liankui (left) poses with Houdini, who can only be counted as a descendant
While at the Union Square Theatre, Zhu Liankui had a colleague: the later famous magician Harry Houdini (the pioneer of escape magic). At the time, Houdini's weekly salary was $150, while Zhu Liankui's was $1,000, the highest salary among all the artists signed.
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On April 1, 1899, a group of media in the United States, including the New York Times, published a report on Zhu Liankui, saying that "the Chinese emperor wants to return Jinlingfu."
At that time, the special passage opened for the Chinese at the Omaha Expo expired, and Zhu Liankui and his team were affected by the "Chinese Exclusion Act" in the United States, could not continue to perform in the United States, and were even detained by the police department to await repatriation. This was supposed to be a simple legal issue, but Zhu Liankui's agent cleverly hyped up the rumor that "the Chinese emperor ordered the US government to return his great magician, and American officials had to get it from", which made the incident widely publicized in the United States.
Eventually, the Union Square Theater confronted the local immigration agency, and Judge Carlsart allowed him to remain in the United States on the grounds that "the Chinese Exclusion Act applies primarily to laborers, while Jinlingfu is an artist," and Zhu Liankui rose to fame in the United States.
In fact, the Chinese government at that time really paid attention to Zhu Liankui. On August 27, 1899, zhu Liankui was officially awarded a Great Qing Dragon Banner by the Qing court for his outstanding performance in promoting Chinese culture overseas. Just a week before he received the honor, on August 20, Zhu Liankui offered a $1,000 reward to challenge anyone who could crack his magic "big bowl of flying water", and Thomas Edison's General Electric produced a short film to respond to Zhu Liankui's bounty behavior.
At that time, Zhu Liankui had already shown his interest in new technologies. In August 1899, Zhu Liankui recorded for the Philadelphia Berliner Phonograph Company during a tour, recording the earliest recorded and physically documented Chinese record in history, one for Zhu Liankui's Peking opera "Wen Zhaoguan" and the other for Zhu Liankui's wife and son.
Poster of Zhu Liankui from the National Theatre of the United States
In 1917, the American music master Owen Berlin composed the song "From Here to Shanghai", the lyrics of which mentioned Zhu Liankui, "I will go into the countryside and eat with a pair of chopsticks." I will also let Jin Lingfu perform all his magic tricks. Obviously, Zhu Liankui's artistic performances have become representatives of Chinese culture in the United States at that time. In that era when China was still poor and weak, it was in itself valuable to be able to make Chinese culture recognized overseas and to establish a positive image of The Chinese in the world.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="74" > the earliest news documentary in China</h1>
In 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China, Zhu Liankui's hometown of Tianjin was affected by the war, and his brother was killed by the Eight-Power Alliance. The hatred of the family and the country made Zhu Liankui determined to return to China.
In 1904, Zhu Liankui decided to make a comeback, and due to problems with visas to the United States, he chose the destination of his performance in London, England, a decision that later led to a famous "magic showdown". The matter is complex and will not be discussed in detail for the time being. It is worth mentioning that director Christopher Nolan was inspired by this historical event to make the movie "Deadly Magic".
In 1912, Zhu Liankui's juggling class returned to the United States to perform. At this time, his reputation in the United States was already at the height of the temple. A year before that, he filmed China's first news documentary, The Wuhan War, in Wuhan.
At the time of the First Uprising of Xinhai, Zhu Liankui happened to be touring in Wuchang. With the consent of the rebels, he and an American from the American Company of the American Company went into the battlefield with the army to shoot. The two of them chose some high-rise buildings on the edge of the concession, such as the British Tobacco Factory Tower on Dazhi Road in Hankou at that time, and the roof of the Daqing Bank on Xinsheng Road, to capture the footage of the rebel army fighting with the Qing army.
Zhu Liankui had already achieved fame at that time, why did he want to do such a risky thing? He himself never said it. Later researchers generally believe that after seeing the advancement of the Western world and the decay of the Manchu Qing government, Zhu Liankui is likely to be full of expectations and recognition for the revolution of that year.
After the field shooting was completed, Zhu Liankui brought the film to Shanghai, where it was developed, edited, and finally compiled into a news film called "Wuhan War".
On December 11, 1911, Zhu Liankui premiered "The Wuhan War" while performing magic in the Theater Garden on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, and from December 15, the film added some content of Nanjing Guangfu.
At that time, the largest newspaper sponsored by the revolutionaries, Minli Bao, published a special performance advertisement for "Wuhan War", saying: "If the audience wants to see the real situation of the battlefield and to cheer up the spirit, please come and watch this film quickly." Because it is no different from being on the battlefield in person, Dazu has increased the ambition of the uprising and the enthusiasm of serving the country. ”
This film includes precious historical materials such as the occupation of Hankou and Hanyang by the rebel army on October 12, the fierce battle between the rebel army and the Qing army at Hankou Dazhimen Station on October 27, and the counterattack of the rebel army from Hanyang on November 16, as well as the picture of the important figures of the rebel army in that year.
The rebel army after the victory at the Liujiamiao Railway Station
Today, the original film of the documentary is suspected of being lost, but many of the images have been preserved in the form of photographs, most of which are included in the "Portraits of the Great Revolution" published by the Commercial Press. One of the photos we quoted earlier in the article "This station you haven't been to, hidden for a hundred years" is also from it.
On December 23, 2011, the Communication University of China and the China Documentary Research Center held a celebration of the "Century of Chinese Documentary Imaging" in the Great Hall of the People, unveiling three bronze statues, one of which is Zhu Liankui, to commemorate his contribution to the cause of Chinese documentary films.
Resources
"Zhu Liankui's Vision", Monthly Study, 1995.04.01
"China's First Newsreel Reflecting the Xinhai Revolution", Wenshi Monthly, 2011.10.01
"Portrait painting of the Great Revolution", The Commercial Press, 2011
"A Generation of Magic Masters Zhu Liankui's Strategy", Tianjin Shizhi, 2018
《Ching Ling Foo：America's First Chinese Superstar》，Drowsy Emperor Ltd，2020