Although movies became wildly popular in Shanghai during the 1930s, theater was still a common diversion. In his Handbook for China, Carl Crow writes that Europeans heavily influenced Shanghai's theater, leading to the staging of more and more Western plays, with Chinese actors depicting foreign characters. "Of these," he writes, "Napoleon is the favorite, and no traveler should miss an opportunity to see Napoleon and Josephine portrayed by Chinese actors.… Fifty cents will usually purchase the best seats in the theatres."
Virtual Cities Project/Institut d'Asie Orientale
