Amazing China in 1917 in color [AI enhanced and colorized] 

*This video is here for HISTORIC purposes and NOT to discuss present day China-related (CCP) politics* ! *Also this comments section is now closed to comments about the dark skin color. It has nothing to do with the AI* . Just scroll down in the comments section to understand why this topic is now off-limits because It has already been discussed to the dry bone" You may find this additional information provided by @tianming4964 interesting: "Phenotypes in different parts of China vary by region and ethnic background. Beijing in the early 1900s still had a sizeable Manchu population (at one point only Manchus could live in the inner parts of the city), as well as other minority groups such as Hui, Uyghurs, Mongols, etc. Hui are Chinese Muslims who ethnically and culturally aren't much different from the majority population, but many have ancestry from Arab and Persian settlers who arrived in China between the 7th and 14th centuries, hence why people of Hui descent tend to have more Central Asian looking features. Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group from the far western part of China more ethnically and culturally similar to Uzbeks and Turks than to Han Chinese. But even among Han Chinese there are variations in facial features (skin colour, eye shape, nose shape, face shape, etc.) between north and south China. Most Chinese in the diaspora (Southeast Asia, Europe, Americas, Oceania) come from southern parts of China like Fujian and Guangdong and have features that more resemble people from Southeast Asia like Vietnam for example. Most Chinese people you'll encounter abroad will be from southern China, and so those are the features most foreigners associate with being Chinese. Northern Chinese are known to have different facial shapes from southern Chinese and its usually possible for a Chinese person to tell whether another Chinese person comes from northern or southern China just by looking at them. Also when it comes to skin tone, it might not just have to do with the colourization process. My grandpa has ancestry from northern China and has similar features to most of the people in the video, including eye shape, nose shape, face shape, etc. This also includes skin tone, to the point that when many people meet him they mistake him for being Indian. His skin isn't naturally dark, but because he was forced to work out in the fields when he was young it became tanned. His siblings similarly have relatively darker skin than what most people would expect for Chinese. The reason why most Chinese people today don't have skin that dark is because they aren't working out in the rice fields anymore and can keep their skin pale and light with an office job indoors. Chinese culture is like most other Asian countries where they value pale skin because its a symbol of being wealthy and upper class and not having to work out in the fields. And as most Chinese today no longer have to work in the fields, they no longer have such tanned skin compared to the past, though among older generations like my grandpa many still do. A lot of people who have met my family will say things like my mom and grandpa "don't look Chinese," even though their ancestry is 100% from China (and we've done DNA tests to confirm). Even other Chinese people will say this, but almost always its southern Chinese people. They never say that my grandma doesn't look Chinese, because my grandma is also from southern China like they are. But because most aren't used to seeing as many northern Chinese in the diaspora, northern Chinese don't look as Chinese to them. I can say that of the northern Chinese I know--friends, neighbours, acquaintances, etc., most share similar features to those in the video. I often watch a lot of Chinese dramas, where actors are more likely to be of northern Chinese descent, and on many instances people have commented to me how some of the actors don't look Chinese at all. In some cases its because they are not ethnically Han Chinese but are from one of the ethnic minorities in China, and in other cases its just they have different features than what people normally associate with Chinese. For some examples search up names like: Lu Taichong, Song Ya Gang, Wang Kang, Eldos Faruk." PS: This video is here for *historic purposes* and *not to discuss present day China-related politics* So please think of this before making your comment!

This kind of video is what makes RU-vid and the internet in general worth it.

Thank you so much! My great-grandparents were American missionaries in China from 1904-1919. They loved the Chinese people so much...this really gives me an idea of all the things they saw while there.

看了感動到流淚，這就是百年前最真實的中國，那時窮困貧乏，但街上的場景人來人往顯現中華人最勤奮最樸實的一面，而且出乎意料的是環境街景看起來老舊破敗，但是很整潔，可見那時文化教育可能不高，但人的素質挺高，社會的氛圍頗為祥和，要不是戰亂，中國應該早就成很有發展的國家，不必等百年後了😢

This is a rare sight indeed!! Awesome coloration! Thanks

My great granddad sailed all over Asia in the early 1900s as a USN sailor. He had a tattoo on his forearm from Hong Kong. Would love to have seen the world back then before globalism made every place so similar.

it's over 100 years since these images were recorded and the people in the images are all long dead. I wonder if those who looked on at the funny man winding a handle on a box realised that people in countries far away would be watching them over 100 years later. Providing these films are never lost, the people in them will live for an eternity.

streets are so clean, remarkable architecture, thanks for posting!

Utterly amazed. Such Chinese History. The incredible leap made from 1917 til today is astounding. Thank you for the History and the work put into this post. I was lucky enough to visit China many times in the 2004 - 8 recent times, and was amazed.

Absolutely amazing trip back in time, each scene is fantastic, like an old painting - but moving! Please do more fragments, if not the whole ten reels :-)

As for th argument why Chinese look dark in old videos, I offer an explanation: Don't use imagination. Use reality. We Chinese households all have several old photos taken at the beginning of the last century, and our great grandparents are all so black. But in my grandfather's generation, my father's generation, it's not like this anymore. I have met my grandfather and my maternal grandfather. My grandfather was a teacher, fair looking, white skin, and my maternal grandfather was a farmer with a dark skin. This is our personal experience, much more reliable than any so-called expert's explanation. So since ancient times, Chinese people have admired white skin because it is a manifestation of identity, indicating that this person has separated from physical labor and become a wealthy class. The army guys are also labor in the sun. Here I will repeat why Chinese people looked black in the image materials a hundred years ago: 1. working under the scorching sun, 2. poor hygiene conditions (not taking a shower or washing face), 3. poor shooting hardware and technology. In addition, we Chinese prefer white skin, not because of the influence of the westerners. Since very very old books written in the centuries B.C, the appreciation of the beauty has been there. In the history of contemporary Chinese art, a famous oil painting called "Father" was created by Luo Zhongli in 1980 (I offered a RU-vid link in comments). This is all because he is not someone's father, but represents the typical image of a Chinese farmer, with dark and rough skin, and a bewildered and numb deep gaze. If you Westerners don't understand history, you will think he is a low caste Indian or African. But this is the Chinese farmers of the past few thousand years. It has only been in recent decades that Chinese farmers have become fair. No need to use a hoe to cultivate land under the scorching sun, we have switched to using machinery.

For those saying this is fake/AI generated, it's not. Technology currently is not capable of creating something like this, and any signs of Ai is because it's upscaled from a poorer quality

This is the period of "warlords" in Chinese history before Nationalists Party (KMT) unified the country. Thank you for processing and sharing these precious films. What a difference a hundred year makes in China. From no automobiles on the streets in the film to the largest auto export country in the world today.

Look better and clean than many slum place in India 2024

This is the closest thing we have to a Time Machine.

a nice selection of music you have made

Rickshaw man was a tough job.

I have been in china 8 times last past 13 years, amazing country, awesome people❤

I have taken several courses in modern China at my university. This time period is very interesting, and this video brought it to life in a way that is hard to capture through textual sources. Thank you for this!

The colorization makes this video absolutely stunning and better than a movie set! It is definitely worth a second and third look. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. 🙏

It's unblievable even for Z generation Chinese. This ground has been changed dramaticly.

China has come a long way through their hard work and suffering and perseverance. A true testament to it's enduring ambitions and determination to succeed.

As a Chinese who works in Beijing, this is quite precious. My nation has developed so much.

The traditional, beautiful, peaceful China. I love it.

So much history... This was 6 years after the Xinhai revolution (1911-1912) that had swepped away the Qing dynasty and had lead to the foundation of the Republic of China. At this time China had plunged into the Warlord Era (1916-1928) after the dictator Yuan Shikai had passed away. In the following years Beijing was ruled by the Beiyang government and Yuan Shikai was succeded by Li Yuanhong and Feng Guozhang. In September 1917 Sun Yat-sen, the primary leader of the Chinese revolution, set up a rival Nationalist government in Guangzhou. During the Northern Expedition (1926-1928) the Nationalist government would attack the Beiyang government and would unify China for a short time. But already during the expedition the United Front between the Nationalists and the Communist Party (founded in 1921, 102 years ago, at that time lead by Chen Duxiu and later Xiang Zhongfa) was ended by the anti-communist Shanghai massacre, which lead to the Chinese civil war (1927-1949). At the same time the Northern Expedition also was a proxy war between the Soviet Union (that supported the Nationalist/Communist United Front) and the Japanese Empire (which supported the Beiyang government). The Japanese would invade Manchuria in 1931. China was in age of chaos and transformation that culminated in the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. But these would be historical events in the far future. At this time the people might have still felt a strong disappointment with the "failed" revolution, but would still have been eager to "learn from the west" (i.e. Western Europe). It was the time of the "New Culture Movement" that rejected Chinese tradition (including the Classical Chinese language) and looked up to alternative western models of culture, society and statehood I really like some of the European style buildings shown in this video (for example at 1:42). I wonder what kind of architecture that is. Art nuoveau? I also wonder how the average Chinese thought about the westernization of Chinese society. What did this kind of "new" architecture mean for them? "Modernization" had already started in the Qing dynasty, but only the Chinese revolution lead to a very evident discontinuity in Chinese culture. Chinese society had been in decline since the the Christian Taiping rebellion (1850-1864) and the Muslim Dungan Revolt (1862-1877). The Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860) were minor events in comparision. The Chinese answer to these inner and outer threats was Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1895), the unsuccesful Hundred Days' Reform (1898) and the Late Qing reforms (1901-1911) which were lead by Confucian reformers. The event that was most humiliating for the Dynasty and the Chinese people was the Eight-Nation Alliance (1900) that lead to the destruction of a great part of Beijing. Therefore, even though there might be some remnants of the earlier imperial era still visible, this video mostly shows the following: - The advances of around 50 years of modernization based on western technology. - Signs of rapid westernization and loss or active rejection of traditional culture. - A city that still bears the signs of war and revolution. - Wretched and poor people whose ancestors only 100 years earlier would have been richer than most Europeans at that time. China would enter World War I in 1917 in support of the Entente Powers even though they were not able to send any soldiers to Europe. On the other hand, Chinese laborers comprised the largest non-European workforce during World War I. After the war the Chinese people would be bitterly disappointed by the western powers as they would allow Japan to keep the German colonies on Chinese territories. After the Treaty of Versailles (1918) this disappointment would lead to the May Fourth Movement (1919) that also was influenced by the October Revolution (1917). The leaders of this movement were people like Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, who had been part of the New Culture Movement and would go on to become the founders of the Chinese Communist Party. These were fundamentally modern thinkers that would reject Chinese tradition, and they would become more influential than Confucian reformers like Kang Youwei, anarchist like Liu Shipei, Wu Zhihui, Li Shizeng and Zhang Renjie, liberals like Hu Shih and neo-Buddhists and new Confucians like Liang Shuming and Xiong Shili, most of whom tried to defend Chinese culture against westernization. On the other hand, they were all influenced by thinkers like Hobbes, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Spencer, Huxley, Haeckel, Katō Hiroyuki, Nietzsche, Kroptkin, Bakunin, Bergson, Euken, Marx, Engels and Lenin. The westernization of thought was quite inevitable. Even though a lot of the scenes shown here are meant to show "traditional" China, this kind of selection goes against the spirit of the time: These were mere remnants, and they would become exceptions even long before the Communists took power.

太兴奋了，可以看到100多年前的北京城，感谢视频的提供者，作为一个北京人感到非常高兴。希望大家有机会也可以来北京看看，视频里大部分的建筑现在都还在。已经成为世界文化遗产的一部分。再次感谢大家。😊

When you see this kind of poverty in China. We who are living now, have to appreciate all the sacrifices our ancestors have made.

Wow what a treasure this is!! Absolutely riveting. The funeral procession was stunning. Wonderful music too! 🙏

Beautifully restored footage! I felt like I was walking through a magic portal to a long-gone world (that had previously lasted for a couple of thousand years.) All palace and park scenes were lovely. What was really poignant was seeing those curious onlookers from so long ago. They probably never saw a movie camera before.

Wonderfu job, as usual. Thanks for taking us back in the history of mankind. If not for your amazing work we wouldn't have seen and enjoy them. Thanks again.

I am Chinese, but not from Beijing or Shanghai... the capital of China. With the unprecedented development of modern societal change in China, I cannot see the old city anymore, what a pity, yet it is amazing to see this from RU-vid, and in color...come from a very small village in China, I only can catch up the memories, which is old and rural Chinese city...

I love how in the 1890s- 1920s the all cities of Earth had an distinct yet near modern flavor. A mix of both the old and the new in great proportions.

a fabulous insight into Chinese culture back then

It already look more developed than modern India.

Fascinating video. The colorization really makes it feel more immediate. Wonderful to see!

Back than China had 400 million inhabitants and even than it was crowded. India had 250 million (all of India, including Pakistan and Bangladesh) Mexico had 15 million Brazil had 18 million Germany had 64 million Austria-Hungary had 50 million Great Britain had 42 million (including Ireland) France had 39 million (including Algeria) Egypt had 13 million South Africa had 6 million Japan had 53 million .... a lot has changed since than

Many people today criticise and down grade China saying so much negative about them but I don't see much examples in history that a nation with in 3 or 4 decades changed it's status from struggling to manage 3 meals a day to a super power. Always pay respect where it is due, no matter who is on the opposite side.

I wonder what type of cameras were used to film these scenes? It certainly was a major source of intrigue and fascination to those who were being filmed. Great video, by the way.

Thank you so much for the footage. The music was soothing, it was lovely to see the architecture and the people of back then. The music just made this 10x better , thank youuu

확실히 이당시 도 중국이 훨씬 더 잘살았네요 뭐든지 크고 웅장하네요 일제강점기 시대라 솔직히 조선말기. 대한초기라 나라꼴이 초가집투성이에 기와집몆개뿐 내세울것 하나 없네요 그당시 북쪽이 훨씬더 잘살았네요 남쪽보다 일본이 비행기 만들때 대한제국은 소달구지 끌고 다녔네요 소도없는집도 많고 참으로 일제강점기 시대 조상님들 고생많으셨어요 일제압잡이들은 빼고 그후손들이 아직도 잘먹고 잘산다는것이 진짜 한이네요 독립투사들 자녀들은 아직도 못살고있는것이 너무나도 억울하네요 여기나온분들 지금은 다돌아가셨지만 그후손들이 살고있을겁니다 중국청나라 말기이네요 넓은땅에 세계인구2위 경제대국되고 공산국가만 아니었다면 더좋았을텐데. 너무나도 아쉽네요 대한민국은 현재 경제세계10위로 제일못살던 나라가 잘살게되었네요 물론 여러나라 도움덕분이지만요 사람들이 워낙 성실하게 열심히 살아서 이룬 덕분이네요 대한민국 만세 🇰🇷😭👍

Its incredible how fast the world has changed since WW1. This has been the standard of living for over centuries and look at what we have now.

AFTER MY MEXICAN GRANMAMA PASSED AWAY I FOUND OUT THAT MY GRANDFATHER WAS CHINESE WHO MIGRATED WITH HIS PARENTS TO VENEZUELA TO ESCAPE HUNGER THEN THEY SETTLED IN MEXICO ACTUALLY LINARES N.L. MEXICO. THAT EXPLAINED WHY LOVE CHINOISERIE OVER MEXICAN POTTERY AND FURNITURE SINCE YOUNG. I WATCH CHINESE DRAMAS 24/7 TRYING TO CAPTURE IN MY MIND HOW MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS WOULD HAVE LIVED IN CHINA. CHINA VIDEOS ..THEY MAKE ME HAPPY.. I AM A FIRST BORN TEXAN OF MEXICAN AND CHINESE DESCENT. THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO. DO YOU BY ANY CHANCE HAVE VIDEOS WHERE THEY ARE BUILDING PAGODAS?.

Incredible

Looked quite similar to when I was young. I was born in 1990 in a small chinese village in vietnam. They had houses that were made of woods and dry leaves. Children running around playing. We made chinese cakes wrapped in leaves and boiled in water for the ~whole day and the cakes last for days without refrigeration. My sister and I would play with the fire using sticks with plastics wrapped around the sticks then placed in the fire and I got burnt from the melting plastic falling on my leg. I was around only 5 and I still remember.

Thanks for the contribution of each generation of Chinese people , as a Chinese I feel proud to my country🙏🙏👍

Chaos, poor, civil wars, nothing good happend during that period of our country. Thanks for uploading this, I will watch it again with my sons, they are kind of taking the good life they're having now for granted.

My mum grew up in similar conditions, quite poor, outside all the time, happy and well. I can so relate to these folks. Don't we all see how similar we all are?

Absolutely wonderful footage and colourisation.

Absolutely amazing if you compare it with nowadays. China evolved at Lightspeed! Impressive!

Reflecting on past footage can be unsettling, as it forces us to confront our own mortality. Billions of individuals who preceded us experienced life's worries, fears, joys, love, and laughter, only for their stories to be erased in an instant. Countless intriguing narratives and fascinating individuals remain unknown to us. The way future generations will perceive us, with our lives documented through vlogs and interviews, contrasts sharply with the loss of 5000+ years of digital undocumented history It’s why rare early footage like this will always be viewed more than our modern versions, because there’s so much mystery in it as there’s so little of it.

A lot of this lifestyle in general still exist today but in rural areas of China.

Great music selection

29:09 is the USS Helena, a Wilmington Class Gunboat, with just very few pictures of it left. Beautiful.

Fascinating video. Thank you for making it available. China of this era was not a unified country with a common Mandarin language. Even today the variety of ethnic backgrounds and local dialects is surprising to many.

😢😢 ❤ I'm very happy that I seen this old videos ❤ I don't know why I'm feel emotionally attached by this video. ❤ Its very peaceful and simple living ❤ I love it so much😢😭😭 My heart is very happy to see this old videos. I'm in my 30's now and this video it was hundred years old. Thanks so much and I subscribed to your channel

Fascinating to watch a period of history and especially how the ordinary folk lived. I noticed that there was a stark difference between the men in the first and second half. In the first half, few sported the queue but more had the queue in the second half. I wonder when the KMT enforced the cutting off of the queue. I had an old client who was over a century old who told us his experience when men with queues were caught in the streets and forced to cut off their queues. He was terrified. He told me his was a roofer so when he came to Nanyang he was able to set up his roofing business. Looking at the buildings, I can see why Chinese were sought after by the British administration for their construction skills. They weren’t treated well and were discriminated upon and there was much violent clashes and murders by the local ethnic groups on Chinese migrants. Yet the Chinese brought with them industry skills and know how that pleased the colonial masters. Even up to the 1960s and 1970s, few local ethnicities possessed these skills and when anti-Chinese government policies excluded Chinese from partaking in government projects, there was no choice but to introduce corrupt practices to locals to set up shell companies and subcontract out to the Chinese to carry out the actual work. The Chinese were known for their industry, know how and craftsmanship, and yet, were discriminated against. From this clip, you can see how tough the working conditions were, work was truly Ku Li (bitter work). Life was Ku for many Chinese working class. It’s no wonder they had to migrate overseas in search of a way to live. I also noted the colour of the clothes, they were all drab and muted colours. So in the KMT era, there was still a colour ban on the different social classes? I don’t think the KMT were much enlightened if that was the case. I see without enthusiasm the opulence of the elite classes in the light of the bitter lives of the masses.

Some of the coolest historic footage on YT. Thank you!

Beautiful combination of music and video

Thank you for uploading this. Humanity has come along way.

Amazing what a people can do if they put their mind to it. Sad how some countries are still stuck in this era

It's a strange thing about humans on Earth. Billions humans passed through here and went somewhere. We don't know why they came and why they went

Got to be the most amazing video I've ever watched ..

Thank you for sharing this media with us, very impressive views and excellent processing from you as we have seen before on your channel. You are really handling the material with dignity adding very subtle colouration and as in this case rather music which suits the secenes than comments, brillant.

Another great historical video. Thank your taking the time to put this together. Regards

My favourite part was seeing the camels. It reminded me that Beijing is at the eastern most edge of the Gobi Desert. Desert Road to Turkestan, by Owen Latimore is a good read about one of the most important trade routes from before even the Han Dynasty. I think Latimore was in the wool trade. 非混淆之人民并不存在。纯粹民族的概论好像和现代民族国家主义很有关系。当然一个民族一个地点面临帝国的侵犯的时候会创造国粹传说。不管看到反清复明，抗日，泰国比缅甸，过去的南斯拉夫，芬兰比瑞典，各个基督教比基督教人民总是会产生冲突而它所造成的故事。人就这样。

Just imagine the people in this video are long gone, that's mind blowing

Great video mate, thanks for sharing! What a beautiful place, such a beautiful city. 🙌🏻

It already look more beautiful and peaceful than USA

i know its real when i see coily headed in royal attire

A-m-a-z-i-n-g. Simply wonderful. Thank you! It couldn't be more authentic. Stunning!

This was a very painful period in China's recent history, also known as the "Century of Humiliation," which was brought on by the invasion of imperialism and local warlord conflict. Despite suffering from extreme poverty and physical hard labor, the Chinese people persevered, and Chinese culture continued. Now, 120 years later, China has developed into a major superpower in the world. It has proved that China is a great civilizational state.

Quin dynasty is pronounced ching! Love the videos you produce, especially this one as I traveled for business during the 1990s when they were ripping up all the old Chinese houses and building roads etc. keep up the good work.

This place looks more developed than some places in the US right now👀

Matt's drumming is flawless and fits perfectly 🙌🙌🙌

Such a great recording. Thanks for uploading it. All the people were gone, dogs were gone and horses were gone. Kinda make me nostalgic

Thank you for posting such amazing footages and the painstaking work! It really transported me to a different place, a different time. What a trip. I am so moved just watching the manual labor alone, pondering what the collective must've been like, their bodies so much more connected with the lives they led; the sheer energy of the city, the activity, is endlessly fascinating to think about. To think that those streets have been walked on with the same kind of liveliness for like a 1000 years, without much fundamental change in the lifestyle for generations back then. That's actually really moving to think about. Bouncing back and forth between that thought and the thought that within a century human technology has advanced so quickly that it has become so self-destructive. If advancement is leading to less life on earth, is it really advancement? Gosh, what a very heavy feeling in my chest right now.

Great footage! My respect for the camera man

Congratulations ❤love the images as the music. Thank you 😊

It would be nice if someone made a comparison video of how everything looks today. Probably there is nothing left of these old buildings.

Those poor men running along pulling carts with people in, imagine doing that all day.

Very precious historical records. I didn’t know that there were so many Western style buildings in Beijing already at the time! I like the Chinese architecture for China regardless!

That is WONDEFUL. We are SO fortunate to have this view into the old world. thank you for sharing

Very interesting it's very very difficult to kept this kind of video, I hope it could keep maintained for generation. Thanks for sharing .. it's a marvellous work 🎉🎉🎉

As Vietnamese, I love China's history

after ww1 my maternal grandparents were both in the u.s. army in the philippines, he a quartermaster corps officer, she a nurse. they honeymooned in peking in 1921. i have photos of their trip which look similar to this video. thank you.

Cool video many thanks for sharing.

China has come such a long way in just 100 years. What amazing achievement!

This is extraordinary! Thank you for sharing this. 🌹

Even cleaner than India now

I've been to Hankou in Wuhan and to see some old footage of it here gave me an amazing feeling of the history of that place. Thank you!

thank you for sharing!!

Could you imagine how hard it would be to pull a rick shaw all day long? Its looks exhausting pulling that around!!!

This is fantastic ! What a great way to archive film that will likely crumble soon, if it hasn't already. Digitized it could potentially last forever (relatively). There is toil but also lots of humour. The pet birds, the freakishly tall gentleman, the contortionist. I wouldn't want to be "sailing" up the Yangtze, though. Exceptional.

The part of the movie labelled "The Winter Palace," was that actually the Summer Palace, or parts of the Forbidden City that I have never seen before? I am guessing it is the Summer Palace because of the large lake or canal. Thank you for posting this video!

Well done music.

Fascinating! And what is even more fascinating: Look at China now! What an astonishing development in shorter than 120 years! In spite of the present policical situation, which is hard for us westerners to understand, one must admit that they achieved unbelievable things. Chinese people are incredibly hardworking! Respect!!!

Fantastic footage thank you so much

as a chinese, it's my first time to watch such kind of video, thanks a lot!

The Chinese dignitary being carried in his sedan chair (5:13) must have been seasick for a week!!

Une très grande nostalgie de ce qui fut le monde autrefois...et en même temps vraiment magnifique de voir,ou bien de revoir ces belles images !!.. - Merci infiniment pour le partage 🙏👍