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36
Monday, 27 July 1925

Before going on with Monday it is highly proper than on the first day of the week I recount our adventures of Sabbath night. One afternoon in strolling through the town we passed what looked like a movie show, and Sunday night were in a mood to investigate it. We went out early in the evening, and paid our couple dimes for admission to the place where the movies signs were. We found ourselves in an open court, where was a stage, and many tables, but in which were no men, for the weather wasnot [[handwritten slash to separate was/not]] auspicious. Instead of staying in the pleasant open court men, mostly young men, and quite a few girls, many of the latter with the men, hurried across the court to the buildings, two or more stories in height, which surrounded it.  In one of these was a theater, and large house built in the western manner, but playing Chinese plays. The audience came and went easily, and the play progressed, though it was poor acting by a poor company. We left the crowded hall and passed another smaller hall, filled with tables like the usual Chinese Theater. Another poor actor was giving a solo in the manner that has become the conventional representation of a woman on the Chinese stage. We went upstairs, and past a kind of restaurant or refreshment parlor where two girls were playing and singing. We went up another flight to a roof where a movie show as in progress. Here were ancient French films wretchedly projected to an audience that seemed to enjoy the darkness. Coming down we stopped for a minute where a company of actors who looked like students were giving modern plays in the modern, that is the western manner. Near the outside door wasa pool hall, and there were indications of other halls and other amusements in farther halls. It was a pitiful place, for none of the entertainments were first class, the place itself was tawdry,  the audience mostly young men, students and some older men, all looking for something of a  good time that was not here. It was a Coney Island without the American flare for convincing sham. It was akin to the New World and such places in Peking and other large cities. While it is no worse here than the same thing at home, one cannot but wonder what it signifies in the changing life of the nation.