Chinese New Year in the 1930s Shanghai
1936. Scenes like these were witnessed all over Shanghai on Thursday as the shops were besieged by last-minute shoppers laying in stocks for the China New Year, now known as the Spring Festival. North-China Herald, 29 Jan 1936.
In the year 1930, the Chinese New Year was renamed Spring Festival, following the Nationalist Government’s abolition of lunar calendar and the ban on the observance of lunar holidays. Festivities were restricted, and the fireworks were prohibited, yet nothing could completely extinguish the celebration, as the reports below demonstrate.
1937. Once a year, a flower market opens in Kiukiang Road, when plum blossoms, “Heavenly Bamboo Seed”, and water lilies are brought in from the country and put on sale. They find a ready market in Chinese householders who desire to decorate their homes for the Chinese New Year festivities. The picture shows one of the shops taken over by an enterprising vendor. North-China Herald, 10 Feb 1937.
1937. The approach of the Chinese New Year, now known as the Spring Festival, following the abolition of the Chinese calendar by the government, can clearly be seen in this picture taken yesterday. It shows a large stock of special sweet cakes kept by a Chinese shop. North-China Herald, 3 (?) Feb 1937.
1938. The Year of the Tiger begins on January 31, with the first day of the Chinese New Year. For some time preparations for the festive days have been busily carried on by Shanghai citizens, these increasing in feverishness as the big day approaches. Above is the scene in one of the city’s markets. North-China Herald, 2 Feb 1938.
1938. There was no ban on firecracker in Pootung over the Chinese New year holidays. Here a Japanese marine is an interested spectator as a Chinese child inspect the crackers he intends to buy with his carefully saved-up coppers. North-China Herald, 9 Feb 1938.
1939. Huge throngs of fun makers yesterday participated in the Spring Festival celebrations while thousands kept the fires burning in the city’s temples. The pictures on the top row show the crowd in front of the Great World and a group of beggars asking for alms. Below, on the left, are worshipers jamming the entrance to a Chinese temple; in the center, worshipers bowing to the deities, and on the right, the burning of paper money in a temple fire. The China Press, 21 Feb 1939.
1940. In spite of the high cost of living and two and a half years of war, the Chinese population of Shanghai is celebrating the New Year - or Spring Festival, to use the modern term - with undiminished enthusiasm. These pictures show the shopping rush in Shanghai on February 7, with people stocking their larders for the happy days ahead. North-China Herald, 14 Feb, 1940.
1941. Among the celebrations of the Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, were all sorts of displays along Avenue Edward VII. The pictures illustrate two of them: a performing monkey and a youthful contortionist amusing the crowds. North-China Herald, 29 Jan 1941.