'Red China' depicts the living conditions in China under the Communist regime of Mao Zedong. A Chinese man dances with another performing a Dragon dance on stage in China. Traditional Chinese pavilions and structures, including the Forbidden City in Beijing. Chinese citizens of various ethnicities in the People’s Republic of China. Modern Chinese buildings and structures. A map of Asia shows China. Monuments including the Great Wall in China. Farmland of the North of China. Crowded streets in China, men pull rickshaws on the streets. People dance and march during the celebration. Narrator speaks of shortage of good farmland and notes that the Chinese people are "on a diet" (during the great famine) of 1600 calories daily per person, compared to the United Nations recommendation of 2100-2300 calories. View of crowded encampments and poor, under fed people in narrow streets. Chinese miner works in a coal mine. Strip mining for iron ore. Chinese oil production including refineries. Dances and celebration during various events. Chinese Young Pioneer girls practice ballet. Chinese youth perform acrobatics and stunts on stage. Chinese women and children laugh and cry. Young girls learn ballet, elderly men greet each other. North China: Herdsmen with sheep. Wheat farmers harvest wheat. South China: Rice farmers in fields. Women sew, farmers pose for the camera. Women work in a factory, people on the road. Chinese Christians attend church. Hui Chinese men pray inside a mosque in China. A large statue of Buddha inside a Buddhist temple. Chinese riding camels. Chairman of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong reviews a parade during the "Great Leap Forward" timeframe, preceding the Cultural Revolution.
U.S. Navy Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnell is interviewed in Guam. Dramatization: U.S. Navy Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnell speaks. He talks about Japanese invasion in China when the war was on in Europe. He states that the war caused destruction, starvation, diseases and rendered many Chinese homeless. Media persons take notes during the interview.
Film opens with outline map of Japan shown in contrast to 20 times larger China and figures representing China's 6 times greater population. Map of China is shown in pieces representing its numerous internal fiefdoms. In contrast, Japanese soldiers are shown marching in review before their singular leader, Emperor Hirohito and other national military leaders. Film shows contrasting 20th century characteristics of China and Japan. Sun Yat-sen, who figured prominently in post-Imperial China, and is considered the founding father of the Republic of China, is shown speaking to crowds. Narrator states that in 1911, this man fathered a peoples' revolution which brought to an end, China's ancient Imperial government. View of Chinese people marching and carrying flags and banners. Books are shown comparing China's Sun Yat-sen to America's George Washingon. Sun Yat-sen's political statement, shown in Chinese, contains words similar those in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address. View of schools and colleges built in the new Republic of China. Chinese students shown in libraries. A couple dining in a Chinese hotel restaurant, overlooking other buildings. A tall clock tower looms at the same height outside their window. Steel being erected for a tall building. Architects at work. Scientist looking through a microscope. Technicians at work in a chemistry laboratory. Medical staff and patients in a modern hospital. Children in school under compulsory education program. Chinese people exercising their freedoms of expression and religion. The funeral of Sun Yat-sen, in 1925, attended by his successor, Chiang Kai-shek, and other Chinese leaders in military uniforms. Chinese people attending an outdoor ceremony. Examples of areas needing modernisation. Chinese workers using manually operated machinery to process fabrics. Commercial vessel plying a river using wind and sail only. Views of steam locomotives and trains being introduced to link parts of China. Trucks moving goods over roads (still unpaved). Miners working in open air mines, digging coal and iron. Molten tin being poured from a crucible. Machines performing complex tasks in a fabric mill and women tending spinning and knitting machines. School children engaged in collective outdoor games and exercise drills. Scene shifts to Japan, where Emperor Hirohito, on a white horse, leads military leaders in reviewing Japanese forces. A formation of Japanese Model 97 medium tanks passing in review, with tank commanders saluting from their turrets. Glimpse of Japanese steel mill. Headline in World-Telegram newspaper of 14 february, 1934, reads: "Tokyo House Passes Huge Arms Budget." A Los Angeles newspaper of 23 November, 1934, expands on the same story. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Sunday, 5, May, 1936, reports that Japan is strained by its huge arms costs.
Initiations rites commemorating sailors' first crossing of the equator( Shellback initiation) being held aboard the USS Marblehead CL-12 off the French Indo-China coast. U.S. Navy sailors dressed in aviator uniforms look through their binoculars standing at the bow of the cruiser. The shellbacks ( sailors who have crossed equator), many dressed in costumes, beat up the stripped pollywogs (sailor's who haven't crossed equator) with wet boards and ropes. Scenes of the stern section of the USS Marblehead. Pollywog sailors pushed into tank of water and black oil. Initiation rite being performed on the deck. Sailors pretend to cut a pollywog with a saw and then let him go as he moves through the initiation rites.
Distant mountain range and clouded skyline as seen from the deck of USS Marblehead CL-12 sailing off the French Indo-China coast. A U.S. Navy sailor dressed in a robe poses for camera .View of the stern of the cruiser.Several vessels underway at a distance.
Shellback initiation rites being held aboard USS Marblehead CL-12 off French Indo-China coast. U.S. Navy soldiers dressed in mythological greek clothing. Undressed man playing King Neptune, sits in his court. Captain of the vessel being initiated as shellback. Men dumped into a pool(vat) as part of shellback initiation.