THIS IS CHINA

[Music] vaping is the immortal soul of China but the great body of the country lies to the South the East the West just look at this map of the enormous land four hundred and fifty million people spread over three and one-half million square miles the coasts are washed by the Japanese the yellow and the South China Seas the long frontiers reach out and touch north and west of Russia the northwest of India the north of French Indochina the way to the sea is by the three important rivers the Pearl with Canton as its port the yellow and the Yangtze Kiang the Yangtze Kiang father of Chinese waters is the main waterway for the great modern cities of Hankow Nanking and Shanghai all transport is done by junks and boats for in the whole huge Yangtze Valley with its 60 million inhabitants there are neither railways nor motor Road the towns of the NC Valley are built in terraces of the steep riverbanks and the lowest houses are built on long poles because of the danger of floods snows thaw in Tibet the river rises as much as 130 feet in the few hours death and destruction and pain are driven in an angry roar before it live for the people of the Yangtze is hard the many missions who work here help as much as they can paying particular attention to protecting and educating the girls daughters are not nearly as welcome to the Chinese as sons for it is his greatest desire to have at least one son who may one day sacrifice to his departed soul the people willingly leave their daughters to the missionaries who take care of them and bring them up till they are old enough to marry and the children by the looks of things are well content with the arrangement the missions to regularly feed and shelter hundreds of people with truly Christian devotion they are patiently relieving the worst of the misery and distress the soil in this region is inexhaustibly rich every inch of the good black earth is cultivated beans rice and grain ripen in profusion under the blessed warmth of a semi tropic Sun but very few peasants can afford to pay any rent whatever they work not on their own lands but on the lands of others and so the Chinese village is a little world which knows practically nothing but work [Music] somewhere among the peasants is a man named Wong and I'm going to tell you about it he is nobody in particular just one of 400 million peasants back from his morning work every day of every year he squats down with his wife and children in his little farmyard and each one of them every day has a bowl of rice he as master of the house may afterward have a little bowl of hot water with a few tea leaves floating in it but for his daughter it is rice and nothing but rice and for his wife as well straightway after the meal Wong picks up his tools and off he goes again to the fields [Music] [Applause] [Music] tragedy lies in store for while the lightning of four has struck this rustic corner of the country all China is united in a common purpose to drive out the Japanese chaos confusion fear more and more soldiers come streaming in like an angry torrent into the village [Music] finally one morning one and the rest of the peasants wrapped their goods their rice their children by the hands and flee [Music] down the roads they pump in their little wooden carts under the trees and out into the country they go far beyond their familiar fields and beloved homes they fly to the muddy river's edge where there are ships and sails and for a while a little safety the following scenes give you some idea of a daily work of that enormous mass the pictures are not of any particular place or time for the record those swarming millions of toilers in China is timeless going on everywhere and every moment of every day all over this huge empire and has been so going on for thousands and thousands of years [Music] and nearly all the work is done by human hands for no machine could be as cheap to work as the [ __ ] is he is China's machine [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] life is kind to a man as long as he has money in his pockets strength in his arms but when he is worked out and in his old age has no one to take care of him then life must come to an end as his working days come to an end and he simply dies by the roadside it doesn't matter much to anyone that he should die it doesn't matter but to him for he is tired and his old limbs ate only one thought can make the going dreadful that he has not been able to provide a coffin for himself or that if dying in another city or country he has not arranged for burial in the home of his ancestors to bring home the dead who died away from home hundreds of death ships ride the rivers of China when the ship is full the voyage has begun while the trip has only brought the ship owners while when he is carrying a full cargo the relatives of the dead man wearing white crowns on their heads or white clothes in sign of mourning accompany the coffin stoically peacefully then turn back to the neverending surge of life from these long and deadening days of federal labor many Chinese seek delight and sweet forgetfulness in opium there are fields and fields of the bright long stem nodding poppy flowers it is from their seed heads that the raw material comes for the drug cultivation of the poppies is now being limited by law soon it is to be stopped altogether but there are enormous profits to be made in the opium traffic and where there are profits to be made it is difficult to abolish an industry no matter how deadly a cut round the seed head and the juice comes out in the little curl it is wiped off collected in little tins and from this white OS by a special process the black gum opium is made but opium is only one of the pestilences which have blackened the lives of the Chinese people all up and down this great country epidemics break out at seasonal intervals here for instance cholera has broken out in the temple the townspeople beseechingly turn to that fickle idols for protection and they have to make sure of the help of innumerable spirits demons and dead ancestors meanwhile this woman is fearfully hanging little glowing sticks outside her door to confound the devil of disease with a cloud of incense the earth is gasping from the terrific heat of summer death this quick can certain it comes almost before the victim is aware of its approach in all the bigger cities hospitals have been built where people can have themselves inoculated and get medicine in a neighboring city the disease has broken up immediately a Red Cross ambulance with doctors and nurses leaves the hospital for the village struck by cholera on arrival first of all the dead are buried and the worst cases are carried to the town hospitals so as to remove the Centers of infection the inhabitants have to be inoculated at first they refused terrified by superstition but the doctors are patient and gradually they persuade the poor people to submit [Music] to the west and north of China proper lie the long gray plains of Inner Mongolia which stretch beyond the Great Wall to the desolate wastes of the Gobi Desert a restless nomadic people of the Mongolians these same Brownstein riders are descendants of the hoards which with Genghis Khan Leatherhead conquered the hold of China and almost overran the medieval face of Europe but now they are a peaceful people their herds are there only conquests this woman is picking up the stuffed skin of a calf she puts it down in front of a car for her to smell for half while cattle can't be milked unless they can see or smell their calves if the calf itself has been killed the cow only needs a snip at the skin and submits quietly to being milked the first bowl full of milk is given to the gods it is sprinkled beseechingly to the four winds as an offering to the spirits of the air and earth bring us prosperity and happiness and peace pleads the woman the Mongolian women wear those heavy ornaments of silver and coral all day long everything here is an age-old tradition here is a wedding being celebrated the bride in all her glory accompanied by her best friend arrives on horseback inside the tent the relations of the happy couple of assembled the best friends job is attending to the horses and while he is doing it the bride herself is blindfolded now she is led into the tent makes a deep bow before her parents-in-law and only then is the Banat removed and she sees the bridegroom in his wedding dress while the wedding here doesn't imply a definite in soluble union the marriage is so to speak a trial one for the wife has the right to leave her husband within three days as the guests greet the bride snuffboxes go from hand to hand in the customary general reading of the country [Music] but over the Prairie land this year a dark forbidding shadow has fallen it is the silhouette of a haughty little soldier with a rifle in one hand a bomb in another Japan once inner mongolia japan wants the herds for her own food the sheep for her own wool the land for a military base as a means of cutting china or from any communication with friendly russia and to achieve this japan is sent into Calgon and the cities beyond her troops armed with machine guns excellently equipped the Peace of Mongolia has been roughed by war the tribes have been aroused unhorse they come from all corners of the long grey prairie land to an encampment which they have secretly decided on [Music] here in their tents their chieftains me to discuss the crisis how can we ask at 'red people ever hope to stop the murderous onslaught of the Japanese they ask how can we turn back the bombs and bullets how can we keep our country for ourselves our children the perfume of suspicion hangs heavily over the Mongolian soul contact is kept up the whole time with a priest to live in the nearby temple now you see them assembling the priests the Chiefs the common people the women - with a splendid ornaments of called silver and gold [Music] the weird music crashes and accompaniment to the prayers Oh spirits of the earthen air bring us good herds and rain oh mighty Buddha give us peace [Music] long caravans laden with skins carpets and the other products of Mongolia wind along the stony tracks to all the lonely little Chinese frontier towns clear looking cars are rumbling heavily towards peak in peak in now called taping a town which was centuries old when Christ was born walls and temples and towers bear witness to the past the whole town itself is shut in by thick walls the gates of whit's are shut every evening and only opened again next morning [Music] from the distant Gobi Desert terrific winds often drive its sands through the hot dry streets a yellowish grey veil envelops the city they are a symbol these terrible storms of the fate that is overtaking the Imperial City for out of the dust comes marching feet and through the veil can be seen the helmets of Japanese troops the city is now Affairs yes all all of taping now lies in and military fists of the Japanese the delicateness the beautiful temple the temple of heaven that has no match in all the world the Buddha's calm and pleasant the priests in their temple and the full woman at the river's edge trained pleading with every offering for peace the Beast of the Great Dragon ruler of the water to whom they pray in vain to protect their shores from invasion [Music] out of our age-old way of existence China gradually but surely and inevitably is lifting herself muddy streets are being buried under by spacious paving bricks some of the finest thoroughfares of the Orient have been laid out [Music] education has been fostered universities have turned out hundreds of excellently trained young people but there are still millions who cannot read or write and here on the sidewalk you see a professional letter writer you tell him what you want to say he puts it down in this Floria slang guack schools are opening everywhere and education is compulsory [Music] [Music] modern schools are spreading new ideas the schools are in many cases on European lines and have excellent trained teachers who are Chinese but it has it's hard and cruel side here are the rickshaws in a year or two or five or six each rickshaw boy knows that he will not be able to pull his little vehicle any longer he will be taken most likely by tuberculosis but were the business of pain or pleasure behind the Chinese of all China now exists a new courage a new determination a new will to achieve a freedom for themselves and a better life yes the life of the Chinese people is growing richer and fuller if let alone by the Japanese battalions China would be a great modern nation from behind the thick walls of the Japanese military missions she has launched her planes loaded with death piloted by fingers that know no mercy the great wall no longer protects China there you see a Chinese who has been arrested by the invaders what was his offense ah but what does it matter it only matters that he was a Chinese and that somehow he got in the way of the advance of Japan so he must be punished that is one way of bringing peace to Asia we have come to China we shall not go back thus proclaim the Japanese invaders but there are voices in China that will not be silent oh yes you will go back or by this assault or by this vicious attack you have aroused within the heart of China a spirit of bitterness against you that in the long run can never be defeated over and over again from platform and street corner you hear this thunderous charge Japan wants to steal our country Japan is the cause of our misfortunes resist the Japanese or we perish as a nation up and down across the old yellow earth this cry has echoed until at last for the first time since the days of the Empire every Chinese army is united under the banner of the Nanking government look at calm and peaceful and beautiful one day but the next morning it is in smoking ruin look at this little Street busy and happy and led to be busy but see it now the war has flown overhead see these blind bewildered frantic terrified refugees the Japanese made them that way see these frightened thousands seeking some place to lay their heads and safety the Japanese destroyed their little home see these human herds pushing plaintively for some quiet corner where they can eat their rice old men and women boys and babies it makes no difference to the Japanese when they drop their bombs and fire their guns all must be consumed in the fire their imperial anger the Chinese regiments are ready troops are on the move resist the Japanese or we perish as a nation this is the cry of China today this is the soul of a new China as it starts on the March this is China [Music] [Applause]