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Colonial Wedding

Cloche-hatted wedding guests, armed with confetti, lie in wait for the newly weds as they exit from a Shanghai church while their limousine gets the treatment.

Amateur film 1930 2 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Screen Archive South East

Overview

This short film shows an expat wedding in Shanghai. The couple are probably Nancy and George Bowler who were friends and colleagues of William and Charlotte Simpson. It was William who filmed the raucous goings on outside the church while the couple were still inside. The limousine, complete with smiling Chinese chauffeur, and rented from the Joffre Garage, gets the traditional treatment reserved for such occasions.

William Simpson, who made this film, worked for the Bradford Dyers Association in Shanghai, at Number 1, The Bund. His wife Charlotte was born in China's Lushan mountains and she married William, who originally came from Bradford, in Shanghai's St Ignatius Roman Catholic Cathedral. The couple left Shanghai before the city was overrun by the Japanese Army and by 1938 had left China for good.