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Troubled Times at the Beginning of the Century (1)
Entering the 20th Century  |
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 On the first day of the 12th month of the 25th lunar year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, it was quiet as usual in the Forbidden City.
The 1st day of the 12th month of the 25th lunar year of Guangxu, Emperor Guangxu was so ill that he didn't pay respects to Empress Dowager Cixi, which was an act against the rule.
He hadn't held court in the morning for two years. It was New Year's Day, 1900 in the Gregorian calendar.
At the other end of the globe, the new century brought new hopes to the people.
In Italy, "Tosca", a new opera by Puccini, was performed in the Rome Opera House to greet the advent of the new century. The love story deeply affected thousands of spectators.
An international exhibition was held in France as scheduled to display the latest achievements of the Industrial Revolution.
In the United States, economists described the upward trend of the economy as "a boom panic". The waves of the Industrial Revolution that began in the middle of the 18th century swept across Europe and North America. Fields and small towns turned into factories and cities in less than one and a half centuries. Progress was a popular belief. The invention of the camera was another remarkable change that took place when mankind entered the 20th century. People began to record what they experienced with the camera.
At the China Film Archives, we can see such an apparatus fashionable in those days.
 Cameras of the first generation made records of China at the turn of the century.
From films made in those days, now preserved by China Film Archives, we can see how Shanghai became a paradise of foreign adventurers after it had been turned into a port city half a century before.
This section of the age-long city wall of Tianjin was dismantled under the coercion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces a year later.
The funeral procession in Beijing was a show of extravagance in the imperial city.
Most foreign tourists landed in Guangdong when they came to China. The Opium War had broken out here 60 years before.
In Hong Kong, foreigners were keen on sedan chairs carried by Chinese. They enjoyed the comfort of age-old China. The British had ruled this place for more than half a century.
The films made in the Qing Empire a century ago remind us that when the 20th century came, the gap between China and the rest of the world was widening.
On the 22nd day of the 12th month of the 25th lunar year of Guangxu, there was a snowfall in Beijing before the Spring Festival of that year. Auspicious snow foretells a good harvest. What would the snowfall bring to China?
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