Mystery photo. Hong Kong? | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Mystery photo. Hong Kong?

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Submitted by benicek on Sat, 2014-02-08 00:13

I found this photo in a flea market in England. Could be Hong Kong but I'm not sure. Lots of bilingual English and Chinese shops signs, and also some arabic, and Chinese nationalist flags. Appears to be a funeral procession but might be a political march. Children at the front possibly wearing uniforms and carrying suns and crosses. Any ideas? 

Uploaded to Flickr here: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26093461@N00/12286973013/

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Submitted by tngan on Sat, 2014-02-08 04:42.

Hi there,

It might not be a funeral procession.  Looked more like a 10th October Rally to me.  Unfortunately even with the largest size many of the hand writings ont he lanterns or the crosses still could not be read.

There are some clues about the period of the photo though.  There is a verticle sign saying “代理陳嘉庚公司各種......" and a black one saying "XXX 陳嘉庚公司製造品...".    陳嘉庚 (Tan Kah Kee 1874-1961) was an enterpreneur.  The photo was likely pre Sino-Japanese war (early 1930's)

The windows of the shop houses might be clues as well as there are louvred.  Must be hot there but no typhoons to destroy them?

My 2 cents,

T

Submitted by moddsey on Sat, 2014-02-08 19:42.

Not Hong Kong. Given the the style of the buildings and sirnames like Chop and Tan etc, probably Singapore.

Submitted by Raymond Lo on Mon, 2014-02-10 20:45.

Penang?

Submitted by Lawrence Tsui on Tue, 2014-02-11 22:44.

The people at the front of the procession were carrying the White Sun symbol of the Kuomintang (KMT - Chinese Nationalist Party).  The people at the rear were carrying what looks like lanterns which resemble the shape of pigs?

Most of the houses were dangling the KMT flag, not disimilar to scenes in HK in the 50s during the Double Ten KMT celebration? But the houses were Penang or Singapore style. 

Submitted by benicek on Wed, 2014-02-12 02:27.

Thanks for your input!