148-574: The Hatchet Man (1932) is a pre-Code film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Edward G. Robinson . Warner Bros. had purchased the David Belasco / Achmed Abdullah play The Honorable Mr. Wong about the Tong gang wars. Made during the few years before strict enforcement of the Production Code , The Hatchet Man has elements that would not be allowed later, such as adultery, narcotics , and
296-453: A World War I veteran cast onto the streets with a morphine addiction from his hospital stay. In Wild Boys of the Road (1933), the young man played by Frankie Darrow leads a group of dispossessed juvenile drifters who frequently brawl with the police. Such gangs were common; around 250,000 youths traveled the country by hopping trains or hitchhiking in search of better economic circumstances in
444-486: A chorus girl , she regularly received diamonds and pearls as gifts, but now must content herself with a corned beef sandwich. In Union Depot (1932), Douglas Fairbanks Jr. puts a luscious meal as the first order of business on his itinerary after coming into money. Given the social circumstances, politically oriented social problem films ridiculed politicians and portrayed them as incompetent bumblers, scoundrels, and liars. In The Dark Horse (1932), Warren William
592-899: A pan-Asian opposition to Western imperialism . In Japan, Sun also met Mariano Ponce , a diplomat of the First Philippine Republic . During the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine–American War , Sun helped Ponce procure weapons that had been salvaged from the Imperial Japanese Army and ship the weapons to the Philippines. By helping the Philippine Republic, Sun hoped that the Filipinos would retain their independence so that he could be sheltered in
740-619: A socialist -based organization in Paris , and asked it to send a team of specialists to help China set up the world's first socialist republic. The same year, Sun received the Indian communist M.N. Roy as a guest. There were then many theories and proposals of what China could be. In the political mess, both Sun Yat-sen and Xu Shichang were announced as president of the Republic of China. China had become divided among regional military leaders. Sun saw
888-466: A speech on Pan-Asianism at Kobe , Japan. For many years, it was popularly believed that Sun died of liver cancer . On 26 January 1925, Sun underwent an exploratory laparotomy at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) to investigate a long-term illness. It was performed by the head of the Department of Surgery, Adrian S. Taylor, who stated that the procedure "revealed extensive involvement of
1036-606: A 17-year-old Sun met with his childhood friend Lu Haodong at the Beiji Temple ( 北極殿 ) in Cuiheng, where villagers engaged in traditional folk healing and worshipped an effigy of the North Star God . Feeling contemptuous of these practices, Sun and Lu incurred the wrath of their fellow villagers by breaking the wooden idol; as a result, Sun's parents felt compelled to dispatch him to Hong Kong. In November 1883, Sun began attending
1184-579: A building named after himself that is larger than the Empire State Building . He tricks everyone he knows into poverty to appropriate others' wealth. He is ultimately shot by his secretary ( Verree Teasdale ), who then ends the film and her own life by walking off the roof of the skyscraper. Americans' mistrust and dislike of lawyers was a frequent topic of dissection in social problem films such Lawyer Man (1933), State's Attorney , and The Mouthpiece (1932). In films such as Paid (1930),
1332-492: A cablegram to all the studios in March 1934 mandating that Dillinger not be portrayed in any motion picture. The genre entered a new level following the release of Little Caesar (1931), which featured Edward G. Robinson as gangster Rico Bandello. Caesar , along with The Public Enemy (starring James Cagney ) and Scarface (1932) (starring Paul Muni ), were, by standards of the time, incredibly violent films that created
1480-665: A censorship board in 1921. Virginia followed suit the next year, and eight individual states had a board by the advent of sound film. Many of these boards were ineffectual. By the 1920s, the New York stage, a frequent source of subsequent screen material, had topless shows; performances were filled with profanity, mature subject matter, and sexually suggestive dialogue. Early during the sound system conversion process, it became apparent that what might be acceptable in New York would not be so in Kansas. In 1927, Hays suggested studio executives form
1628-429: A committee to discuss film censorship. Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Sol Wurtzel of Fox , and E. H. Allen of Paramount responded by collaborating on a list they called the " Don'ts and Be Carefuls ", based on items that were challenged by local censor boards, and which consisted of eleven subjects best avoided, and twenty-six to be handled very carefully. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved
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#17330852411821776-608: A dispossessed juvenile delinquent is in court expecting a jail sentence. However the judge lets the boy go free, revealing to him the symbol of the New Deal behind his desk, and tells him "[t]hings are going to be better here now, not only here in New York, but all over the country." A box-office casualty of this hopefulness was Gabriel Over the White House , which entered production during the Hoover era malaise and sought to capitalize on it. By
1924-664: A friendship with Sun. Sun attended To Tsai Church ( 道濟會堂 ), founded by the London Missionary Society in 1888, while he studied medicine in Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese . Sun pictured a revolution as similar to the salvation mission of the Christian church . His conversion to Christianity was related to his revolutionary ideals and push for advancement. During the Qing-dynasty rebellion around 1888, Sun
2072-657: A gathering for a "national conference" for the Chinese people. He called for the end of warlord rules and the abolition of all unequal treaties with the Western powers . Two days later, he traveled to Beijing to discuss the future of the country despite his deteriorating health and the ongoing civil war of the warlords. Among the people whom he met was the Muslim warlord General Ma Fuxiang , who informed Sun that he would welcome Sun's leadership. On 28 November 1924 Sun traveled to Japan and gave
2220-496: A high and self-sufficing purpose. Hays and others, such as Samuel Goldwyn , obviously felt that motion pictures presented a form of escapism that served a palliative effect on American moviegoers. Goldwyn had coined the famous dictum, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union " in the pre-Code era. However, the MPPDA took the opposite stance when questioned about certain so-called "message" films before Congress in 1932, claiming
2368-467: A long time. The group has also been referred to as the "three cooperating organizations", as well as the triads . Sun mainly used the group to leverage his overseas travels to gain further financial and resource support for his revolution. In 1895, China suffered a serious defeat during the First Sino-Japanese War . There were two types of responses. One group of intellectuals contended that
2516-448: A lot further than more recent efforts such as Wall Street , and it's amazing how much plot and character are gracefully shoehorned into 75 minutes." The film featured pre-Code megastar Warren William (later dubbed "the king of Pre-Code" ), "at his magnetic worst", playing a particularly vile and heartless department store manager who, for example, terminates the jobs of two long-standing male employees, one of whom takes his own life as
2664-628: A memory." Although the liberalization of sexuality in American film had increased during the 1920s, the pre-Code era is either dated generally to the start of the sound film era, or more specifically to March 1930, when the Hays Code was first written. Over the protests of NAMPI, New York became the first state to take advantage of the Supreme Court's 1915 decision in Mutual Film vs. Ohio by instituting
2812-605: A new type of anti-hero. Nine gangster films were released in 1930, 26 in 1931, 28 in 1932 and 15 in 1933, when the genre's popularity began to subside after the end of Prohibition . The backlash against gangster films was swift. In 1931, Jack Warner announced that his studio would stop making them and that he himself had never allowed his 15-year-old son to see them. Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen ( / ˈ s ʊ n ˈ j ɑː t ˈ s ɛ n / ; traditional Chinese : 孫逸仙 ; simplified Chinese : 孙逸仙 ; pinyin : Sūn Yìxiān ; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)
2960-536: A picture, to be titled Mad Dog of Europe , which was intended to be a full-scale attack on Hitler. Jaffe had quit his job at RKO Pictures to make the film. Hays summoned the pair to his office and told them to cease production as they were causing needless headaches for the studios. Germany had threatened to seize all the properties of the Hollywood producers in Germany and ban the import of any future American films. In
3108-448: A potential government takeover of film censorship and social research seeming to indicate that movies that were seen to be immoral could promote bad behavior, was enough pressure to force the studios to capitulate to greater oversight. In 1922, after some risqué films and a series of off-screen scandals involving Hollywood stars, the studios enlisted Presbyterian elder Will H. Hays to rehabilitate Hollywood's image. Hays, later nicknamed
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#17330852411823256-549: A product of the excesses of the previous decade. In looking back upon the 1920s, events were increasingly seen as occurring in prelude to the market crash. In Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), lurid party scenes featuring 1920s flappers are played to excess. Joan Crawford ultimately reforms her ways and is saved; less fortunate is William Bakewell , who continues on the careless path that leads to his ultimate self-destruction. For Rain or Shine (1930), Milton Ager and Jack Yellen composed " Happy Days Are Here Again ". The song
3404-471: A result. He also threatens to fire Loretta Young 's character, who pretends to be single to stay employed, unless she sleeps with him, then attempts to ruin her husband after learning she is married. Films that stated a position about a social issue were usually labeled either "propaganda films" or "preachment yarns". In contrast to Goldwyn and MGM's definitively Republican stance on social issue films, Warner Brothers, led by New Deal advocate Jack L. Warner ,
3552-580: A revolutionary. The same year, he delivered a speech in which he proclaimed his Three Principles of the People as the foundation of the country and the Five-Yuan Constitution as the guideline for the political system and bureaucracy. Part of the speech was made into the National Anthem of the Republic of China . On 10 November 1924, Sun traveled north to Tianjin and delivered a speech to suggest
3700-536: A single coherent party provided a better base for those who shared revolutionary ideals. Under Sun's provisional government, several innovations were introduced, such as the aforementioned calendar system, and fashionable Zhongshan suits . Yuan Shikai , who was in control of the Beiyang Army , had been promised the position of president of the Republic of China if he could get the Qing court to abdicate. On 12 February 1912,
3848-406: A somewhat graphic use of a flying hatchet. The opening crawl reads: 'San Francisco's Chinatown 15 years ago (1917) had the largest Oriental population of any colony outside China . Its 40,000 yellow residents were divided into various political factions known as Tongs , each governed by a president and council. These various Tongs were almost constantly at war, so the office of “ hatchet man ”
3996-415: A way that might arouse passion or be made to seem right and permissible. All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience. Authority figures had to be treated respectfully, and the clergy could not be portrayed as comic characters or villains. Under some circumstances, politicians, police officers and judges could be villains, as long as it
4144-447: Is a drug-induced hallucination. Toya faints when she sees him, but Wong has only love for her. He confronts Madame Si-Si and demands his wife, by ancient Chinese law and on the honor of a hatchet man. Madame SiSi scoffs; he proves it by hitting the eye of a dragon in a wall painting. Toya and Wong leave. He promises to return for Harry. On the other side of the partition, Madame Si Si shrieks at an unresponsive Harry while her servant removes
4292-533: Is again enlisted, this time to get an imbecile, who is accidentally in the running for Governor, elected. The candidate wins the election despite his incessant, embarrassing mishaps. Washington Merry-Go-Round portrayed the state of a political system stuck in neutral. Columbia Pictures considered releasing the film with a scene of the public execution of a politician as the climax before deciding to cut it. Cecil B. DeMille released This Day and Age in 1933, and it stands in stark contrast to his other films of
4440-466: Is decidedly anti-capitalist; however, its preface claims otherwise: In many parts of the South today, there exists an endless dispute between rich land-owners, known as planters, and the poor cotton pickers, known as "peckerwoods". The planters supply the tenants with the simple requirements of everyday life and; in return, the tenants work the land year in and year out. A hundred volumes could be written on
4588-477: Is inhabited by the archangel Gabriel upon being knocked unconscious. The spirit's behavior is similar to that of Abraham Lincoln . The president solves the nation's unemployment crisis and executes an Al Capone -type criminal who has continually flouted the law. Dictators were not just glorified in fiction. Columbia's Mussolini Speaks (1933) was a 76-minute paean to the fascist leader, narrated by NBC radio commentator Lowell Thomas . After showing some of
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4736-570: Is killed, and Wong goes to Sacramento to meet with the Bing Foo. Only Big Jim Malone, the white gangster who started the war, refuses to cooperate. Wong eliminates him, and the war ends. Meanwhile, Harry has seduced Toya. When Wong returns, he finds them embracing passionately. She steps between Harry and Wong, and recalls his promise to make her happy, always. Wong gives Toya and her happiness to Harry, making him swear, warning that if he breaks faith Buddha will find him. Because of this “unworthy act”, Wong
4884-619: Is stricken from the Tong's records everywhere. Shunned, he falls into poverty. At last, Wong hears from Toya in a note, “written from a living death” in China, to tell him she loves only him. The government caught Harry selling opium , and deported both of them. Wong redeems his hatchets from pawn and heads across the Pacific to China, working as a stoker . Toya is prisoner in an opium den/brothel, sold to Madame Si-Si by Harry. Harry sees Wong, but thinks he
5032-457: Is summoned from Sacramento to take revenge for Hop's death. He is stunned when the council president, Nog Hong Fah, tells him that Sun Yat Ming, his friend since childhood, is the guilty party. Sun is surprised and pleased to see Wong. He has prepared for his own assassination: His will leaves everything to his old friend. He also asks Wong to raise his little daughter, Toya San, and marry her when she comes of age. Wong agrees—and then reveals that he
5180-515: Is the Lem Sing Tong hatchet man. Wong swears before the Buddha that Toya will never know “the song of sorrow.” Sun calmly kneels and prays and forgives Wong's “innocent hand its stroke of justice.” Chinatown “today”.. “a far cry from what we have just seen. Gone are the warring Tongs—Gone are the queues and chop-sticks.” Wong, a prominent businessman, is wealthy and happy. Nog detests change, especially
5328-401: Is to ENTERTAIN. ... This we must keep before us at all times and we must realize constantly the fatality of ever permitting our concern with social values to lead us into the realm of propaganda ... the American motion picture ... owes no civic obligation greater than the honest presentment of clean entertainment and maintains that in supplying effective entertainment, free of propaganda, we serve
5476-675: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He did not live to see his party unify the country under his successor, Chiang Kai-shek , in the Northern Expedition . Now residing in Beijing, Sun died of gallbladder cancer in 1925. A vital component of Sun's legacy is his political philosophy, known as the Three Principles of the People : the peoples' independence from foreign domination, their rights, and their livelihood. He also composed
5624-697: The Church of Hawaii and directed by an Anglican prelate, Alfred Willis , with the language of instruction being English. At the school, the young Sun first came in contact with Christianity. Sun was later baptized in Hong Kong (on 4 May 1884) by Rev. Charles Robert Hager an American missionary of the Congregational Church of the United States ( American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ) to his brother's disdain. The minister would also develop
5772-564: The Great Depression of the 1930s motivated studios to produce films with racy and violent content, which boosted ticket sales. Soon, the flouting of the code became an open secret. In 1931, The Hollywood Reporter mocked the code, and Variety followed suit in 1933. In the same year as the Variety article, a noted screenwriter stated that "the Hays moral code is not even a joke any more; it's just
5920-732: The Huanghuagang Uprising , also known as the Yellow Flower Mound Uprising. The Ipoh leaders were Teh Lay Seng, Wong I Ek, Lee Guan Swee, and Lee Hau Cheong. The leaders launched a major drive for donations across the Malay Peninsula and raised HK$ 187,000. On 27 April 1911, the revolutionary Huang Xing led the Yellow Flower Mound Uprising against the Qing. The revolt failed and ended in disaster. The bodies of only 72 revolutionaries were identified of
6068-575: The Manchu Qing government could restore its legitimacy by successfully modernizing. Stressing that overthrowing the Manchu would result in chaos and would lead to China being carved up by imperialists, intellectuals like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao supported responding with initiatives like the Hundred Days' Reform . In another faction, Sun Yat-sen and others like Zou Rong wanted a revolution to replace
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6216-534: The National Assembly of the Republic of China in 1912. In May 1912, the legislative assembly moved from Nanjing to Beijing, with its 120 members divided between members of the Tongmenghui and a republican party that supported Yuan Shikai. Many revolutionary members were already alarmed by Yuan's ambitions and the northern-based Beiyang government . The Tongmenghui member Song Jiaoren quickly tried to control
6364-619: The Northern Expedition against the military at the north. He established the Whampoa Military Academy near Guangzhou with Chiang Kai-shek as the commandant of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). Other Whampoa leaders include Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin as political instructors. This full collaboration was called the First United Front . In 1924 Sun appointed his brother-in-law T. V. Soong to set up
6512-591: The Territory of Hawaii , stating that "he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870." He renounced it after it served its purpose to circumvent the Chinese Exclusion Act. Official files of the United States show that Sun had United States nationality, moved to China with his family at age 4, and returned to Hawaii 10 years later. On 6 April 1904, on his first attempt to enter
6660-672: The Victorian era was sometimes ridiculed as being naïve and backward. When the Code was announced, The Nation , a liberal periodical, attacked it. The publication stated that if crime were never presented in a sympathetic light, then, taken literally, "law" and "justice" would become the same. Therefore, events such as the Boston Tea Party could not be portrayed. And if clergy were always to be presented positively, then hypocrisy could not be examined either. The Outlook agreed. Additionally,
6808-607: The Western Hills a few miles outside Beijing. A glass-covered steel coffin was sent by the Soviet Union to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall at Temple of Azure Clouds as a permanent repository for the body but was ultimately declined by the family as unsuitable. The body was embalmed for preservation by Peking Union Medical College who reportedly guaranteed its preservation for 150 years. In 1926, construction began on
6956-530: The "Forerunner of the Revolution") for his instrumental role in the 1911 Revolution that successfully overthrew the Qing dynasty . Educated overseas, Sun is considered one of the most important leaders of modern China, but his political life featured constant struggles and frequent periods of exile. After the success of the 1911 Revolution, Sun quickly resigned as president of the nascent Republic of China, relinquishing
7104-475: The "Match King", who attempts to corner the global market on matches. William's vile character, Paul Kroll, commits robbery, fraud, and murder on his way from a janitor to a captain of industry. When the market collapses in the 1929 crash, Kroll is ruined and chooses suicide over imprisonment. William played another unscrupulous businessman in Skyscraper Souls (1932): David Dwight, a wealthy banker who owns
7252-515: The "screen Landis". In 1924, Hays introduced a set of recommendations dubbed "The Formula", which the studios were advised to heed, and asked filmmakers to describe to his office the plots of films they were planning. The Supreme Court had already decided unanimously in 1915 in Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio that free speech did not extend to motion pictures, and while there had been token attempts to clean up
7400-519: The 1920s. "After two years the Jazz Age seems as far away as the days before the war", F. Scott Fitzgerald commented in 1931. In the sense noted by Fitzgerald, understanding the moral climate of the early 1930s is complex. Although films experienced an unprecedented level of freedom and dared to portray things that would be kept hidden for several decades, many in America looked upon the stock market crash as
7548-529: The 274 seats in the upper house. In retaliation, the KMT leader Song Jiaoren was assassinated, almost certainly by a secret order of Yuan, on 20 March 1913. The Second Revolution took place by Sun and KMT military forces trying to overthrow Yuan's forces of about 80,000 men in an armed conflict in July 1913. The revolt against Yuan was unsuccessful. In August 1913, Sun fled to Japan, where he later enlisted financial aid by
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#17330852411827696-468: The 86 that were found. The revolutionaries are remembered as martyrs . Despite the failure of this uprising, which was due to a leak, it was successful in triggering off the trend of nation-wide revolts. On 10 October 1911, the military Wuchang Uprising took place and was led again by Huang Xing. The uprising expanded to the Xinhai Revolution , also known as the "Chinese Revolution", to overthrow
7844-616: The Asian actors from the cast.” Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times described the film as a “grim melodrama...a fast-moving tale with an Oriental motif and one of its particularly effective features is the make-up of the players, not so much that of Mr. Robinson but of others, especially Dudley Digges and Loretta Young...” International Photographer commended Robinson for maintaining audience sympathy despite "the gruesomeness of his (character's) art" and described Young's makeup (though not her acting) as "an artistic triumph." Leonard Maltin gives
7992-510: The Chinese newspaper Qun Qiang Bao all reported the cause of death as liver cancer, based on Taylor's observation. He also left a short political will ( 總理遺囑 ), penned by Wang Jingwei , which had a widespread influence in the subsequent development of the Republic of China and Taiwan . His body then was preserved in mineral oil and taken to the Temple of Azure Clouds , a Buddhist shrine in
8140-685: The Diocesan Home and Orphanage on Eastern Street (now the Diocesan Boys' School ), and from 15 April 1884 he attended The Government Central School on Gough Street (now Queen's College ), until graduating in 1886. In 1886, Sun studied medicine at the Guangzhou Boji Hospital under the Christian missionary John Glasgow Kerr . According to his book "Kidnapped in London", in 1887 Sun heard of
8288-456: The Emperor did abdicate the throne. Sun stepped down as president, and Yuan became the new provisional president in Beijing on 10 March 1912. The provisional government did not have any military forces of its own. Its control over elements of the new army that had mutinied was limited, and significant forces still had not declared against the Qing. Sun Yat-sen sent telegrams to the leaders of all provinces to request them to elect and to establish
8436-412: The Furen Literary Society was merged with the Hong Kong chapter of the Revive China Society. Thereafter, Sun became the secretary of the newly merged Revive China Society, which Yeung Ku-wan headed as president. They disguised their activities in Hong Kong under the running of a business under the name "Kuen Hang Club" ( 乾亨行 ). A "Heaven and Earth Society" sect known as Tiandihui had been around for
8584-431: The Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, maintained a lifelong friendship with Sun and later wrote an early biography of him Sun wrote a book in 1897 about his detention, "Kidnapped in London." Sun traveled by way of Canada to Japan to begin his exile there. He arrived in Yokohama on 16 August 1897 and met with the Japanese politician Tōten Miyazaki . Most Japanese who actively worked with Sun were motivated by
8732-515: The October 29, 1929, market crash) highlighted Bow's sexual attractiveness. 1920s stars such as Bow, Gloria Swanson , and Norma Talmadge freely displayed their sexuality in a straightforward fashion. The Great Depression presented a unique time for film-making in the United States. The economic disaster brought on by the stock market crash of 1929 changed American values and beliefs in various ways. Themes of American exceptionalism and traditional concepts of personal achievement, self-reliance, and
8880-432: The Pre-Code era was more incendiary than the gangster film; neither preachment yarns nor vice films so outraged the moral guardians or unnerved the city fathers as the high caliber scenarios that made screen heroes out of stone killers. In the early 1930s, several real-life criminals became celebrities. Two in particular captured the American imagination: Al Capone and John Dillinger . Gangsters like Capone had transformed
9028-410: The Qing at Friendship Pass , which is the border between Guangxi and Vietnam . The uprising failed after seven days of fighting. In 1907, there were a total of four failed uprisings, including Huanggang uprising , Huizhou seven women lake uprising and Qinzhou uprising . In 1908, two more uprisings failed: the Qin-lian Uprising and Hekou Uprising . Because of the failures, Sun's leadership
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#17330852411829176-439: The Qing government. The uprising was a failure. Sun received financial support mostly from his brother, who sold most of his 12,000 acres of ranch and cattle in Hawaii. Additionally, members of his family and relatives of Sun would take refuge at the home of his brother Sun Mei at Kamaole in Kula , Maui . While in exile in London in 1896, Sun raised money for his revolutionary party and to support uprisings in China. While
9324-426: The United States and was accompanied by his closest foreign advisor, the American "General" Homer Lea , an adventurer whom Sun had met in London when they attempted to arrange British financing for the future Chinese republic. Both sailed for China, arriving there on 21 December 1911. On 29 December 1911, a meeting of representatives from provinces in Nanjing elected Sun as the provisional president . 1 January 1912
9472-418: The United States, Sun Yat-sen landed in San Francisco . He was detained and faced with possible deportation. Sun, represented by the law firm of Ralston & Siddons, based in Washington DC , filed an appeal with the Commissioner-General of Immigration on 26 April 1904. On 28 April 1904, the acting secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor in a four-page decision contained in the case file, set aside
9620-408: The age of 10, attending secondary school in Hawaii. In 1878, after receiving a few years of local schooling, a 13-year-old Sun went to live with his elder brother Sun Mei , who would later make major contributions to overthrowing the Qing dynasty , and who financed Sun's attendance of the ʻIolani School . There, he studied English, British history , mathematics, science, and Christianity. Sun
9768-474: The alliance's mouthpiece to promote revolutionary ideas. Later, he initiated the establishment of reading clubs across Singapore and Malaysia to disseminate revolutionary ideas by the lower class through public readings of newspaper stories. The United Chinese Library, founded on 8 August 1910, was one such reading club, first set up at leased property on the second floor of the Wan He Salt Traders in North Boat Quay. The first actual United Chinese Library building
9916-415: The assembly. He mobilized the old Tongmenghui at the core with the mergers of a number of new small parties to form a new political party, the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party, commonly abbreviated as "KMT") on 25 August 1912 at Huguang Guild Hall , Beijing. The 1912–1913 National assembly election was considered a huge success for the KMT, which won 269 of the 596 seats in the lower house and 123 of
10064-458: The audience as to how to commit crime. Sadistic violence and reaction shots showing the faces of individuals on the receiving end of violence were considered especially sensitive areas. The Code later recommended against scenes showing robbery, theft, safe-cracking, arson, "the use of firearms", "dynamiting of trains, machines, and buildings" and "brutal killings", on the basis that they would be rejected by local censors. No motion picture genre of
10212-482: The audience feels sure that evil is wrong and good is right." The Code contained an addendum, commonly referred to as the Advertising Code, that regulated film advertising copy and imagery. On February 19, 1930, Variety published the entire contents of the Code. Soon the men obligated to enforce the code – Jason Joy, who was the head of the Committee until 1932, and his successor, Dr. James Wingate – would be seen as generally ineffective. The first film
10360-425: The audiences' desire for realism led to certain unsavory social, legal, and political issues being portrayed in film. The length of pre-Code films was usually comparatively short, but that running time often required tighter material and did not affect the impact of message films. Employees' Entrance (1933) received the following 1985 review from Jonathan Rosenbaum : "As an attack on ruthless capitalism, it goes
10508-399: The authority to order studios to remove material from a film in 1930, but instead worked by reasoning and sometimes pleading with them. Complicating matters, the appeals process ultimately put the responsibility for making the final decision in the hands of the studios themselves. One factor in ignoring the Code was the fact that some found such censorship prudish. This was a period in which
10656-529: The ban on homosexuality or the use of specific curse words, were never directly mentioned but were assumed to be understood without clear demarcation. Miscegenation, the mixing of the races, was forbidden. The Code stated that the notion of an "adults-only policy" would be a dubious, ineffective strategy that would be difficult to enforce. However, it did allow that "maturer minds may easily understand and accept without harm subject matter in plots which does younger people positive harm." If children were supervised and
10804-460: The breaking point. These economic circumstances led to a loss of nearly half of the weekly attendance numbers and closure of almost a third of the country's theaters in the first few years of the depression. Even so, 60 million Americans went to the cinema weekly. Apart from the economic realities of the conversion to sound, were the artistic considerations. Early sound films were often noted for being too verbose. In 1930, Carl Laemmle criticized
10952-528: The commencement of direct support from the Nanyang Chinese. The Singapore chapter of the Tongmenghui was established on 6 April 1906, but some records claim the founding date to be end of 1905. The villa used by Sun was known as Wan Qing Yuan . Singapore then was the headquarters of the Tongmenghui. After founding the Tongmenghui, Sun advocated the establishment of the Chong Shing Yit Pao as
11100-439: The connection between mobsters and Broadway productions in movies such as Lights of New York (1928), Tenderloin (1928), and Broadway (1929). The Hays Office had never officially recommended banning violence in any form in the 1920s—unlike profanity, the drug trade or prostitution—but advised that it be handled carefully. New York's censor board was more thorough than that of any other state, missing only around 50 of
11248-550: The country in staging another Chinese revolution. However, as the war ended in July 1902, the United States emerged victorious from a bitter three-year war against the Republic. Therefore, Sun did not have the opportunity to ally with the Philippines in his revolution in China. On 22 October 1900, Sun ordered the launch of the Huizhou Uprising to attack Huizhou and provincial authorities in Guangdong. That came five years after
11396-502: The country's 1,000 to 1,300 annual releases. From 1927 to 1928, violent scenes removed included those in which a gun was pointed at the camera or "at or into the body of another character". Also subject to potential censorship were scenes involving machine guns, criminals shooting at law enforcement officers, stabbing or knife brandishing (audiences considered stabbings more disturbing than shootings), whippings, choking, torture and electrocution, as well as scenes perceived as instructive to
11544-805: The danger and returned to China in 1916 to advocate Chinese reunification . In 1921, he started a self-proclaimed military government in Guangzhou and was elected Grand Marshal . Between 1912 and 1927, three governments were set up in South China: the Provisional government in Nanjing (1912) , the Military government in Guangzhou (1921–1925), and the National government in Guangzhou and later Wuhan (1925–1927). The governments in
11692-535: The day of the wedding, the Bing Foo, an outlaw Tong based in Sacramento, declares war. Wong fears a nationwide conflict and the transformation of Tongs into gangsters. Nog hires bodyguards, and the handsome young gangster, Harry En Hai (Leslie Fenton) is assigned to Wong. Toya is a modern girl with a good education, and at first she gives Harry the brush off. Wong and Toya are happy together, but threats and blackmail from Sacramento continue. Wong's devoted clerk, Chung Ho,
11840-504: The dissemination of his revolutionary principles and ideals among Siamese Chinese in Siam . In Bangkok, Sun visited Yaowarat Road , in the city's Chinatown . On that street, Sun gave a speech claiming that Overseas Chinese were "the Mother of the Revolution." He also met the local Chinese merchant Seow Houtseng, who sent financial support to him. Sun's speech on Yaowarat Road was commemorated by
11988-609: The dynastic system with a modern nation-state in the form of a republic . The Hundred Days' reform turned out to be a failure by 1898. In the second year of the establishment of the Revive China Society, on 26 October 1895, the group planned and launched the First Guangzhou uprising against the Qing in Guangzhou . Yeung Ku-wan directed the uprising starting from Hong Kong. However, plans were leaked out, and more than 70 members, including Lu Haodong , were captured by
12136-410: The early 1900s, the United States was still primarily a rural country, especially in self-identity. D. W. Griffith 's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) is one of the earliest American films to feature urban organized crime. Prohibition 's arrival in 1920 created an environment in which those who wished to consume alcohol often had to consort with criminals, especially in urban areas. Nonetheless,
12284-483: The early 1930s. Complicating matters for the studios, the advent of sound film in 1927 required an immense expenditure in sound stages, recording booths, cameras, and movie-theater sound systems, not to mention the new-found artistic complications of producing in a radically altered medium. The studios were in a difficult financial position even before the market crash as the sound conversion process and some risky purchases of theater chains had pushed their finances near
12432-562: The economic realities of a country struggling to find its next meal. In Blonde Venus (1932), Marlene Dietrich 's character resorts to prostitution to feed her child, and Claudette Colbert 's character in It Happened One Night (1934) gets her comeuppance for throwing a tray of food onto the floor by later finding herself without food or financial resources. Joan Blondell 's character in Big City Blues (1932) reflects that, as
12580-450: The era. Other stars who excelled during this period, however, like Ruth Chatterton (who decamped to England) and Warren William (the so-called "king of pre-Code", who died in 1948), would be largely forgotten by the general public within a generation. Beginning in late 1933 and escalating throughout the first half of 1934, American Catholics launched a campaign against what they deemed the immorality of American cinema. This, along with
12728-399: The events implied elliptically, the code allowed what Brandeis University cultural historian Thomas Doherty called "the possibility of a cinematically inspired thought crime ". The Code sought not only to determine what could be portrayed on screen, but also to promote traditional values. Sexual relations outside of marriage could not be portrayed as attractive and beautiful, presented in
12876-596: The events leading up to it are unclear, Sun Yat-sen was detained at the Chinese Legation in London , where the Chinese secret service planned to smuggle him back to China to execute him for his revolutionary actions. He was released after 12 days by the efforts of James Cantlie , The Globe , The Times , and the Foreign Office , which left Sun a hero in the United Kingdom. James Cantlie, Sun's former teacher at
13024-503: The failed Guangzhou Uprising. This time, Sun appealed to the triads for help. The uprising was another failure. Miyazaki, who participated in the revolt with Sun, wrote an account of the revolutionary effort under the title "33-Year Dream" ( 三十三年之夢 ) in 1902. In 1903, Sun made a secret trip to Bangkok in which he sought funds for his cause in Southeast Asia. His loyal followers published newspapers, providing invaluable support to
13172-490: The film's message. The Jazz Age prelude was almost singularly used to cast shame on the boisterous behavior of the 1920s. Cabin in the Cotton (1932) is a Warner Bros. message film about the evils of capitalism. The film takes place in an unspecified southern state where workers are given barely enough to survive and taken advantage of by being charged exorbitant interest rates and high prices by unscrupulous landowners. The film
13320-707: The first Chinese "daily" newspaper, the Kwong Wah Yit Poh , in December 1910. To sponsor more uprisings, Sun made a personal plea for financial aid at the Penang conference , held on 13 November 1910 in Malaya. The high-powered preparatory meeting of Sun's supporters was subsequently held in Ipoh, Singapore, at the villa of Teh Lay Seng, the chairman of the Tungmenghui, to raise funds for
13468-711: The first Chinese central bank, the Canton Central Bank . To establish national capitalism and a banking system was a major objective for the KMT. However, Sun met opposition by the Canton Merchant Volunteers Corps Uprising against him. In February 1923, Sun made a presentation to the Students' Union in Hong Kong University and declared that the corruption of China and the peace, order, and good government of Hong Kong had turned him into
13616-469: The hatchet from the partition—and from Harry's skull. Harry's body falls, Cut to the statue of Buddha; Wong repeats his warning to Harry. “The great Lord Buddha will find you no matter where you are on the face of the Earth”. Contemporary reviews, including The New York Times , make the mistake of calling J. Carroll Naish's character “Sun Yat Sen” instead of Sun Yat Ming, a slip probably caused by familiarity with
13764-477: The last emperor, Puyi . Sun had no direct involvement in it, as he was in Denver , Colorado , and had spent much of the year in the United States in search of support from Chinese Americans . That made Huang be in charge of the revolution that ended over 2000 years of imperial rule in China. On 12 October, when Sun learned of the successful rebellion against the Qing emperor from press reports, he returned to China from
13912-439: The legal system turns innocent characters into criminals. The life of Joan Crawford 's character is ruined and her romantic interest is executed so that she may live free, although she is innocent of the crime for which the district attorney wants to convict her. Religious hypocrisy was addressed in such films as The Miracle Woman (1931), starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Frank Capra . Many pre-Code films dealt with
14060-639: The list, and Hays created the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) to oversee its implementation. However, there was still no way to enforce these tenets. The controversy surrounding film standards came to a head in 1929. Director Cecil B. DeMille was responsible for the increasing discussion of sex in cinema in the 1920s. Starting with Male and Female (1919), he made a series of films that examined sex and were highly successful. Films featuring Hollywood's original " It girl " Clara Bow such as The Saturday Night Kid (released four days before
14208-518: The liver by carcinoma " and that Sun had only about ten days to live. Sun was hospitalized, and his condition was treated with radium . Sun survived the initial ten-day period, and on 18 February, against the advice of doctors, he was transferred to the KMT headquarters and treated with traditional Chinese medicine . That was also unsuccessful, and he died on 12 March, at the age of 58. Contemporary reports in The New York Times , Time , and
14356-441: The lyrics to the National Anthem of the Republic of China . Sun's genealogical name [ zh ] was Sun Deming ( Cantonese : Syūn Dāk-mìhng ; 孫德明 ). As a child, his milk name was Tai Tseung ( Dai-jeuhng ; 帝象 ). In school, the teacher gave him the name Sun Wen ( Syūn Màhn ; 孫文 ), which was used by Sun for most of his life. Sun's courtesy name was Zaizhi ( Jai-jī ; 載之 ), and his baptized name
14504-542: The motion picture "Czar", was paid the then-lavish sum of $ 100,000 a year (equivalent to more than $ 1.7 million in 2022 dollars). Hays had previously served as U.S. Postmaster General under president Warren G. Harding and as the head of the Republican National Committee . At the time of his hiring, he was president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA); he held
14652-577: The movies before, such as when the studios formed the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry (NAMPI) in 1916, little had come of the efforts. In 1929, Catholic layman Martin Quigley , editor of the prominent trade paper Motion Picture Herald , and Father Daniel A. Lord , a Jesuit priest, created a code of standards (of which Hays strongly approved) and submitted it to
14800-537: The name of the real Sun Yat Sen , one of the great leaders of modern China. According to Naish's obituary in The New York Times , this was his first major film and the first of his many dialect roles, but he never played his own ethnicity—Irish. Throughout the film, Music Director Leo F. Forbstein uses variations on “ Poor Butterfly “, a popular song released in 1916. “Poor Butterfly” was inspired by Giacomo Puccinni's tragic opera Madama Butterfly . The film
14948-502: The number of Tongmenghui members reached 963. Sun's notability and popularity extended beyond the Greater China region, particularly to Nanyang (Southeast Asia), where a large concentration of overseas Chinese resided in Malaya ( Malaysia and Singapore). In Singapore, he met the local Chinese merchants Teo Eng Hock ( 張永福 ), Tan Chor Nam ( 陳楚楠 ) and Lim Nee Soon ( 林義順 ), which mark
15096-434: The office reviewed, The Blue Angel , which was passed by Joy without revision, was considered indecent by a California censor. Although there were several instances where Joy negotiated cuts from films, and there were indeed definite, albeit loose, constraints, a significant amount of lurid material made it to the screen. Joy had to review 500 films a year using a small staff and little power. The Hays office did not have
15244-461: The opening of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (the forerunner of the University of Hong Kong ). He immediately sought to attend, and went on to obtain a license to practice medicine from the institution in 1892; out of a class of twelve students, Sun was one of two who graduated. In the early 1880s, Sun Mei had sent his brother to ʻIolani School, which was under the supervision of
15392-675: The order of deportation and ordered the Commissioner of Immigration in San Francisco to "permit the said Sun Yat-sen to land." Sun was then freed to embark on his fundraising tour in the United States. In 1904, Sun Yat-sen came about with the goal "to expel the Tatar barbarians (specifically, the Manchu), to revive Zhonghua , to establish a Republic, and to distribute land equally among the people" ( 驅除韃虜, 恢復中華, 創立民國, 平均地權 ). One of Sun's major legacies
15540-485: The overcoming of odds lost great currency. Due to the constant empty economic reassurances from politicians in the early years of the Depression, the American public developed an increasingly jaded attitude. The cynicism, challenging of traditional beliefs, and political controversy of Hollywood films during this period mirrored the attitudes of many of their patrons. Also gone was the carefree and adventurous lifestyle of
15688-413: The perception of entire cities. Capone gave Chicago its "reputation as the locus classicus of American gangsterdom, a cityscape where bullet-proof roadsters with tommygun-toting hoodlums on running boards careened around State Street spraying fusillades of slugs into flower shop windows and mowing down the competition in blood-spattered garages". Capone appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1930. He
15836-422: The period. Filmed shortly after DeMille had completed a five-month tour of the Soviet Union , This Day and Age takes place in America and features several children torturing a gangster who got away with the murder of a popular local shopkeeper. The youngsters are seen lowering the gangster into a vat of rats when the police arrive, and their response is to encourage the youths to continue this. The film ends with
15984-482: The petition to Li but was not granted an audience. After that experience, Sun turned irrevocably toward revolution. He left China for Hawaii and founded the Revive China Society , which was committed to revolutionizing China's prosperity. It was the first Chinese nationalist revolutionary society. Members were drawn mainly from Chinese expatriates, especially from the lower social classes. The same month in 1894,
16132-484: The picture two and a half out of four stars, calling it a “Fascinating yarn about Chinatown tongs, and Robinson's attempts to Americanize himself. Potent melodrama, once you get past obvious barrier of Caucasian cast.“ According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $ 491,000 in the U.S. and $ 251,000 elsewhere. Pre-Code Hollywood Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the American film industry that occurred between
16280-776: The politician and industrialist Fusanosuke Kuhara . In 1915, Yuan proclaimed the Empire of China with himself as Emperor of China . Sun took part in the National Protection War of the Constitutional Protection Movement and also supported bandit leaders like Bai Lang during the Bai Lang Rebellion , which marked the beginning of the Warlord Era . In 1915, Sun wrote to the Second International ,
16428-485: The position for 25 years and "defended the industry from attacks, recited soothing nostrums , and negotiated treaties to cease hostilities". Hollywood mimicked the decision Major League Baseball had made in hiring judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as League Commissioner the previous year to quell questions about the integrity of baseball in the wake of the 1919 World Series gambling scandal ; The New York Times called Hays
16576-572: The position to the general Yuan Shikai and ultimately going into exile in Japan. He later returned to found a revolutionary government in Southern China to challenge the warlords who controlled much of the country following Yuan's death. In 1923, Sun invited representatives of the Communist International to Guangzhou to reorganize the KMT, resulting in the brittle First United Front with
16724-505: The praise by calling Lenin a "great man" and indicated that he wished to follow the same path as Lenin. In 1923, after having been in contact with Lenin and other Moscow communists, Sun sent representatives to study the Red Army , and in turn, the Soviets sent representatives to help reorganize the KMT at Sun's request. With the Soviets' help, Sun was able to develop the military power needed for
16872-536: The progress Italy has made during Mussolini 's 10-year reign, Thomas opines, "This is a time when a dictator comes in handy!" The film was viewed by over 175,000 jubilant people during its first two weeks at the cavernous Palace Theater in Albany, New York . The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in 1932 quelled the public affection for dictators. As the country became increasingly enthraled with FDR, who
17020-527: The rights and wrongs of both parties, but it is not the object of the producers of Cabin in the Cotton to take sides. We are only concerned with the effort to picture these conditions. In the end, however, the planters admit their wrongdoing and agree to a more equitable distribution of capital. The avaricious businessman remained a recurring character in pre-Code cinema. In The Match King (1932), Warren William played an industrialist based on real-life Swedish entrepreneur Ivar Kreuger , himself nicknamed
17168-471: The south were established to rival the Beiyang government in the north. Yuan Shikai had banned the KMT. The short-lived Chinese Revolutionary Party was a temporary replacement for the KMT. On 10 October 1919, Sun resurrected the KMT with the new name Chung-kuo Kuomintang , or "Nationalist Party of China." Sun was now convinced that the only hope for a unified China lay in a military conquest from his base in
17316-914: The south, followed by a period of political tutelage [ zh ] , which would culminate in the transition to democracy. To hasten the conquest of China, he began a policy of active co-operation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Sun and the Soviet Union 's Adolph Joffe signed the Sun-Joffe Manifesto in January 1923. Sun received help from the Comintern for his acceptance of communist members into his KMT. Sun received assistance from Soviet advisor Mikhail Borodin , whom Sun described as his " Lafayette ". The Russian revolutionary and socialist leader Vladimir Lenin praised Sun and his KMT for its ideology, principles, attempts at social reformation, and fight against foreign imperialism. Sun also returned
17464-538: The street later being named "Sun Yat Sen Street" or "Soi Sun Yat Sen" ( Thai : ซอยซุนยัตเซ็น ) in his honour. According to Lee Yun-ping, chairman of the Chinese historical society, Sun needed a certificate to enter the United States since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 would have otherwise blocked him. In March 1904, while residing in Kula , Maui , Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by
17612-631: The streets in protest became a prevalent sight during the Great Depression. The Bonus Army protests of World War I veterans on the capital in Washington, D.C., on which Hoover unleashed a brutal crackdown, prompted many of the Hollywood depictions. Although social issues were examined more directly in the pre-Code era, Hollywood still largely ignored the Great Depression, as many films sought to ameliorate patrons' anxieties rather than incite them. Hays remarked in 1932: The function of motion pictures
17760-565: The studios wanted to appease the German government. The ban on Jews and negative portrayals of Germany by Hitler's government even led to a significant reduction in work for Jews in Hollywood until after the end of World War II. As a result, only two social problem films released by independent film companies addressed the mania in Germany during the pre-Code era ( Are We Civilized? and Hitler's Reign of Terror ). In 1933, Herman J. Mankiewicz and producer Sam Jaffe announced they were working on
17908-498: The studios. Lord's concerns centered on the effects sound film had on children, whom he considered especially susceptible to the medium's allure. Several studio heads, including Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), met with Lord and Quigley in February 1930. After some revisions, they agreed to the stipulations of the Code. One of the main motivating factors in adopting the Code was to avoid direct government intervention. It
18056-450: The surface of American life in the Depression was the fear of the angry mob, portrayed in panicked hysteria in films such as Gabriel Over the White House (1933), The Mayor of Hell (1933), and American Madness (1932). Massive wide shots of angry hordes, comprising sometimes hundreds of men, rush into action in terrifyingly efficient uniformity. Groups of agitated men either standing in breadlines, loitering in hobo camps, or marching
18204-426: The time the film was released on March 31, 1933, FDR's election had produced a level of hopefulness in America that rendered the film's message obsolete. Adolf Hitler 's rise to power in Germany and his regime's anti-Semitic policies significantly affected American pre-Code filmmaking. Although Hitler had become unpopular in many parts of the United States, Germany was still a voluminous importer of American films and
18352-728: The urban-crime genre was mostly ignored until 1927 when Underworld , which is recognized as the first gangster movie, became a surprise hit. According to the Encyclopedia of Hollywood entry on Underworld , "The film established the fundamental elements of the gangster movie: a hoodlum hero; ominous, night-shrouded city streets; floozies; and a blazing finale in which the cops cut down the protagonist." Gangster films such as Thunderbolt (1929) and Doorway to Hell (1930) were released to capitalize on Underworld ' s popularity, with Thunderbolt being described as "a virtual remake" of Underworld . Other late-1920s crime films investigated
18500-557: The wall-to-wall banter of sound pictures, and director Ernst Lubitsch wondered what the camera was intended for if characters were going to narrate all the onscreen action. The film industry also withstood competition from the home radio, and often characters in films went to great lengths to belittle other media. The film industry was not above using the new medium to broadcast commercials for its projects however, and occasionally turned radio stars into short feature performers to take advantage of their built-in following. Seething beneath
18648-428: The way that women are being spoiled “by intelligence and freedom”. It is Toya's birthday; it should be the day of her betrothal. Nog is appalled to learn that Wong will defy tradition and give her a choice. Wong offers Toya his mother's ring and declares his love. He is overjoyed when she replies “My father's wish is also mine.” He kneels before the statue of Buddha, affirming his promise to bring her only happiness. On
18796-601: The widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (popularly known as the Hays Code ) in 1934. Although the Hays Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor, and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 1934, with the establishment of the Production Code Administration . Before that date, film content
18944-496: The youngsters taking the gangster to a local judge and forcing the magistrate to conduct a trial in which the outcome is never in doubt. The need for strong leaders who could take charge and steer America out of its crisis is seen in Gabriel Over the White House (1933), about a benevolent dictator who takes control of the United States. Walter Huston stars as a weak-willed, ineffectual president (likely modeled after Hoover) who
19092-495: Was Rixin ( Yaht-sān ; 日新 ). While at school in British Hong Kong , he got the art name Yat-sen ( 逸仙 ; Yìxiān ). Sun Zhongshan ( Syūn Jūng-sāan ; 孫中山 , also romanized Chung Shan ), the most popular of his Chinese names in China, is derived from his Japanese name Kikori Nakayama ( 中山樵 ; Nakayama Kikori ), the pseudonym given to him by Tōten Miyazaki when he was in hiding in Japan. His birthplace city
19240-559: Was a Chinese revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who served as the provisional first president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Kuomintang (KMT). Uniquely among 20th-century Chinese leaders, Sun is revered by both the Republic of China on Taiwan (where he is officially the " Father of the Nation ") and by the People's Republic of China (where he is officially
19388-464: Was built between 1908 and 1911 below Fort Canning, on 51 Armenian Street, commenced operations in 1912. The library was set up as a part of the 50 reading rooms by the Chinese republicans to serve as an information station and liaison point for the revolutionaries. In 1987, the library was moved to its present site at Cantonment Road. On 1 December 1907, Sun led the Zhennanguan Uprising against
19536-520: Was challenged by elements from within the Tongmenghui who wished to remove him as leader. In Tokyo, members from the recently merged Restoration society raised doubts about Sun's credentials. Tao Chengzhang and Zhang Binglin publicly denounced Sun in an open leaflet, "A declaration of Sun Yat-sen's Criminal Acts by the Revolutionaries in Southeast Asia", which was printed and distributed in reformist newspapers like Nanyang Zonghui Bao . The goal
19684-463: Was clear that they were the exception to the rule. The entire document contained Catholic undertones and stated that art must be handled carefully because it could be "morally evil in its effects" and because its "deep moral significance" was unquestionable. The Catholic influence on the Code was initially kept secret, owing to the Anti-Catholic bias of the time. A recurring theme was "throughout,
19832-622: Was even offered seven-figure sums by two major Hollywood studios to appear in a film, but he declined. Dillinger became a national celebrity as a bank robber who eluded arrest and escaped confinement several times. He had become the most celebrated public outlaw since Jesse James . His father appeared in a popular series of newsreels giving police homespun advice on how to catch his son. Dillinger's popularity rose so quickly that Variety joked that "if Dillinger remains at large much longer and more such interviews are obtained, there may be some petitions circulated to make him our president." Hays wrote
19980-404: Was featured in countless newsreels , it exhibited less desire for alternative forms of government. Many Hollywood films reflected this new optimism. Heroes for Sale , despite being a tremendously bleak and at times anti-American film, ends on a positive note as the New Deal appears as a sign of optimism. When Wild Boys of the Road (1933), directed by William Wellman , reaches its conclusion,
20128-634: Was in Hong Kong with a group of revolutionary thinkers, nicknamed the Four Bandits , at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese . In 1891, Sun met revolutionary friends in Hong Kong including Yeung Ku-wan who was the leader and founder of the Furen Literary Society . The group was spreading the idea of overthrowing the Qing. In 1894, Sun wrote an 8,000-character petition to Qing Viceroy Li Hongzhang presenting his ideas for modernizing China. He traveled to Tianjin to personally present
20276-468: Was initially unable to speak English, but quickly acquired it, received a prize for academic achievement from King Kalākaua , and graduated in 1882. He then attended Oahu College (now known as Punahou School ) for one semester. By 1883, Sun's interest in Christianity had become deeply worrisome for his brother—who, seeing his conversion as inevitable, sent Sun back to China. Upon returning to China,
20424-575: Was of Hakka and Cantonese descent. His father owned very little land and worked as a tailor in Macau and as a journeyman and a porter. After finishing primary education and meeting childhood friend Lu Haodong , he moved to Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaii , where he lived a comfortable life of modest wealth supported by his elder brother Sun Mei . During his stay in Honolulu, Sun began his education at
20572-493: Was one of special importance. The honorable title of “hatchet man” was passed from father to son by inheritance only, and it was he, with the aid of his sharp axe, who dispensed the justice of the great God Buddha ...' “...Our story opens following the death of Hop Li, member of the powerful Lem Sing Tong, and we see his funeral procession passing down DuPont Street”... A huge dragon banner unfolds, declaring war. People panic: men sharpen hatchets; shops are shuttered. Wong Low Get
20720-568: Was released in Britain as The Honourable Mr. Wong . TCM's Brian Cady observes: “As was typical of the time, almost no Asian actors appear in the cast of a film set completely among Chinese characters. Makeup artists had noticed that audiences were more likely to reject Western actors in Asian disguise if the faces of actual Asians were in near proximity. Rather than cast the film with all Asian actors, which would have then meant no star names to attract American audiences, studios simply eliminated most of
20868-416: Was renamed Zhongshan in his honour likely shortly after his death in 1925. Zhongshan is one of the few cities named after people in China and has remained the official name of the city during Communist rule. Sun Deming was born on 12 November 1866 to Sun Dacheng and Madame Yang . His birthplace was the village of Cuiheng , Xiangshan County (now Zhongshan City), Canton Province (now Guangdong ). He
21016-573: Was repeated sarcastically by characters in several films such as Under Eighteen (1931) and 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1933). Less comical was the picture of the United States' future presented in Heroes for Sale that same year (1933), in which a hobo looks into a depressing night and proclaims, "It's the end of America". Heroes for Sale was directed by prolific pre-Code director William Wellman and featured silent film star Richard Barthelmess as
21164-1144: Was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) and the major studios, and popular opinion than by strict adherence to the Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers. As a result, some films in the late 1920s and early 1930s depicted or implied sexual innuendo , romantic and sexual relationships between white and black people, mild profanity , illegal drug use , promiscuity , prostitution , infidelity , abortion , intense violence , and homosexuality . Nefarious characters were seen to profit from their deeds, in some cases without significant repercussions. For example, gangsters in films such as The Public Enemy , Little Caesar , and Scarface were seen by many as heroic rather than evil. Strong female characters were ubiquitous in such pre-Code films as Female , Baby Face or Red-Headed Woman , among many others, which featured independent, sexually liberated women. Many of Hollywood's biggest stars, such as Clark Gable , Bette Davis , James Cagney , Barbara Stanwyck , Joan Blondell , and Edward G. Robinson , got their start in
21312-451: Was set as the epoch of the new republican calendar . Li Yuanhong was made provisional vice-president, and Huang Xing became the minister of the army. A new provisional government for the Republic of China was created, along with a provisional constitution . Sun is credited for funding the revolutions and for keeping revolutionary spirit alive, even after a series of false starts. His successful merger of smaller revolutionary groups into
21460-466: Was the creation of his political philosophy of the Three Principles of the People . These Principles included the principle of nationalism (minzu, 民族 ), of democracy (minquan, 民權 ), and of welfare (minsheng, 民生 ). On 20 August 1905, Sun joined forces with revolutionary Chinese students studying in Tokyo to form the unified group Tongmenghui (United League), which sponsored uprisings in China. By 1906
21608-423: Was the most prominent maker of these types of films and preferred they be called "Americanism stories". Pre-Code historian Thomas Doherty has written that two recurring elements marked the so-called preachment yarns. "The first is the exculpatory preface; the second is the Jazz Age prelude." The preface was essentially a softened version of a disclaimer that intended to calm any in the audience who disagreed with
21756-426: Was the responsibility of the Studio Relations Committee, headed by Colonel Jason S. Joy, to supervise film production and advise the studios when changes or cuts were required. The Code was divided into two parts. The first was a set of "general principles" that mostly concerned morality. The second was a set of "particular applications", an exacting list of items that could not be depicted. Some restrictions, such as
21904-502: Was to target Sun as a leader leading a revolt only for profiteering . The revolutionaries were polarized and split between pro-Sun and anti-Sun camps. Sun publicly fought off comments about how he had something to gain financially from the revolution. However, by 19 July 1910, the Tongmenghui headquarters had to relocate from Singapore to Penang to reduce the anti-Sun activities. It was also in Penang that Sun and his supporters would launch
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