CAVE MEN’S CINEMAS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 290, 2 September 1933, Page 18

CAVE MEN’S CINEMAS

Moving Pictures 2000 Years Ago

Excavations in Czechwan, a province of Western China, are enabling students to write up more fully the earlier chapters of Chinese history, writes Dr. W. G. Goddard in the Brisbane “Courier.” Hitherto we have been dependent on the records of the official annalists, which concerned only subjects of national importance. With the finding of documents of private writers we are gaining an insight into the customs and folklore of the great masses removed from the cities. The story of Cinderella, as told among the cave men in Han times, was noted in the “Courier” some months ago. Now from the same area we learn that in early Han days the shadow show was a popular form of amusement. A description of one of these shows appears cut in stone; it was recovered from a depth of 15ft. beneath the loess deposits in Czechwan. The sands of the Shame Desert in their relentless and untiring fury have buried it for ages. But now it comes to light with its archaic caligraphy quite clear. It reads, inter alia: .“In Czechwan, near Mount Tan Shih, is a large cave, capable of holding 500 persons. At the. far end of the cave is a rock, standing upright and perfectly smooth. Here, in the days of the Han Emperors, men went to see the moving shadows. Figures of wood, some representing the men of Han, and others the Tartars, were held before a torch, so that their shadows fe’l on the rock. Behind a screen of wood those who operated the figures spoke for them. Always the men of Han were the conquerors.” >, This document refers later to the Butterfly Dance, “now a favourite amusement in Hsian, the capital, which would fix the date in the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-906). We know that Li Yuan, the founder of that dynasty, introduced this dance into bis court Here, then, we have the first moving picture or shadow show, as .seen by the cave men in South-west China. The Han Emperors reigned from 206 8.C.A.D. 220, and during that period there ' was frequent warfare with the Tartar tribes. A number of names of heroes of those days and fights has come down in the records of the Hans, and these were, no doubt, the subjects whose shadows were thrown on to the rock screen in the cave. And we can easily Imagine the shouts of the cave men which greeted the victories of such warriors as Wung Min, Tai Lib, and Wei Lo. These were the popular idols in that far distant day. And probably the tale of the girl and her ugly step-sis-

ters, which was so well known to those cave men, and which passed to the West as the story of Cinderella, was also shadowed on that screen of rock. There is no historical evidence that this shadow show passed into other parts of China, or that it entered into Japan as part of China’s culture. Rather, it appears to have passed south with the wanderers who entered into Siam. These were the Lao Tai, whose ancestral home was in Czechwan, and who began to migrate into Siam as far back as 2500 years ago. They had established a State on the banks of the Mekong River 2000 years ago, and colonies were set up at the same period in the vicinity of Wieng Chan. The shadow show or primitive cineI ma went with them, probably because , we find in Siamese records that the Nang Talung or shadow play has teen known In Sl&m from remotest times. It still persists in the hill country, being given in a temporary hut, one side of which is covered with a large white sheet. The audience sits’ on the ground / outside and .watches the movements of the shadows cast oq the sheet by figures manipulated in' front of a light within the hut. Two operators sit ou the floor, one on each side of the light, and have the dramatis personae cut out of stiff. leather in their hands. Heuce the name Nang Talung—Nang being the Siamese word for leather. This shadow play is, of course, a much more developed mechanism than that among .the cave men of China. The principal characters have practicable lower jaws and arms, which, during the dialogue that is spoken by the operators, are worked up and down. The hillmen flock to these shadow shows, and at times will sit the whole night through watching in admiration the exploits of one of their traditional heroes. The shadow show of the Chinese cave men was much more primitive but it was probably the prigin of this more highly’developed Siamese play. In certain parts of Java and in Borneo the shadow play is still highly popular, especially where there is a Chinese population. In these islands music accompanies the play, and, although it has no - relation 'to the subject of the play, continues in subdued tones throughout. The document found at Czechwan adds a new and important chapter to the history of the cave men who lived 2000 years ago in the upper valley of the Yang-tse River. It tells of the first attempt to provide a cinema entertainment.