The Hostilities in Shanghai in 1932

The sights and countryside

There are small number of souvenir photographs stamped on the back “Copyright photograph by MacTavish & Co., Ltd. Shanghai” showing the Shanghai Race Club (img012 & 017), children fishing and swimming in an irrigation canal (img013), feeding the temple fish (img014-115), the Zigzag Bridge at Yuyuan Garden (img016), a joss house (img018), and “pagodas up country” (img019-021). The three pagodas at Kashing (Jiaxing) between Hangzhou and Suzhou on the Grand Canal are easily recognised in img020. The other two images of pagodas are probably in the same area.

Winston took six photographs of an aeroplane landing at Kiangwan racecourse (img069-072a). This seems to have been an important event attracting a large crowd (img070) with a formal arrival ceremony with troops and military band (img072).

A few photographs show the countryside outside Shanghai – developed suburbs today. The countryside with an irrigation canal (img006-007), children swimming and fishing in an irrigation canal (img013), a bridge over a canal with women possibly returning home from work in the paddy filed followed by a dog (img044), a horse and rider (img065), ploughing the fields (img066), people working in the rice paddies (img068 & 077) and the system of irrigation (img076 & 078). Some of the photographs taken of yachting on the river show remarkable details of the countryside in the background, such as img079.