1903 G&T (Victor) Chinese Record Find

[yesteryear1]

I have been hoping to find one of these some day and yesterday was the day. This was among some of the first recordings made in China and issued by G &T. The legendary Fred Gaisburg was the engineer, and this one was recorded in Mandarin Chinese in Shanghai circa 1903. Others were done in Cantonese and recorded in Hong Kong around the same time period. Through an agreement with Victor, some of these recordings were reissued by Victor in 1904 on the Label seen here. This one is a comic song. Can anyone out there translate the Title?

[Starkton]

Nice find. Can you identify the G&T matrix number. Perhaps I can tell you more about it then.

[yesteryear1]

I just had the Title of this rare record translated. Here is the Title:

This is a record from Shanghai, a Chinese traditional drama. The name of this drama is “Dating in a Buddhist nun room”.

It that neat or what ? I would suspect a pretty shocking title by 1903 standards ? I will be back with the actual matrix number for you shortly.

[MTPhono]

Any chance you could post a YouTube video of the record? It looks like a nice find indeed!

[yesteryear1]

Yes, I will be posting a youtube video sometime today, and will let you all know when it is up and running. In the meantime, in answer to the previous question about the Matrix # it is either E543 or E548, it is hard to decipher the last digit since there is slight defect that partially obscures the left side of that last number. I am going to guess 548, since the bottom loop extends further up then a 3 would usually go.

Further, this information was found on the Canadian Antique Phonograph Societies Website:

The earliest discs recorded in Chinese territory were by Fred Gaisberg for The Gramophone & Typewriter Company Limited between March 18th and April 26th, 1903. A total of 476 records, titled in Chinese, were listed in its 1904 Chinese catalogue. Three hundred and twenty-nine Mandarin dialect records were recorded in Shanghai and one hundred and forty-seven Cantonese dialect records were recorded in Hong Kong. These discs were issued in 7" and 10" sizes with the "Recording Angel" trademark on the reverse . Matrix numbers E429 to E618 were used for 190 10" records and E1503 to E1788 for 286 7" records. According to the agreement made between The Gramophone & Typewriter Company and the Victor Talking Machine Company on August 3, 1904, some of these records were first re-issued by Victor in America in 1904. These reissues carry "Velly Good Talkee" trade marks on a label depicting a Chinaman listening to a Gramophone. The earliest issues of this label were cream-white in color; later issues appeared in a yellow color.

Fred Gaisberg's recordings and trips to China were arranged by Moutrie & Co., a British Company originally established in 1875 that began commercial business in gramophones and records in Shanghai in early 1906. Moutrie & Co. later became the first and exclusive sales agent for Victor's gramophones and records for the entire Chinese market. Its Chinese name, "MOUDELI", has long appeared on the labels of early Victor records. In 1925-26 its Chinese factory was set up in Shanghai to produce pianos and organs.

[roaring20s]

That has a fabulous graphic! Nice Label!

I have to ask about the color of the record itself. Is it black? It is shows as a strong blue on my screen.

Other nice labels are in the All About the Tunes section...
victrolagramophones.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=music&action=display&thread=20&page=3

James.

[Starkton]

Jun 26, 2010 10:46:36 GMT -6 yesteryear1 said:

I am going to guess 548, since the bottom loop extends further up then a 3 would usually go.

E548 was recorded in Shanghai on March 27, 1903. G&T issue number was 12825.

[yesteryear1]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ0KBEz23j4

Ok, sorry for the delay. Here is that early 1903 recording from Shanghai, China entitled "Dating in a Buddhist Nun Room" I guess it would help if you brushed up on your Mandarin Chinese lessons before you listened to this.

[gramophone]

WOW!!!!.I had a large group of these in brown wax



There was no "imported" on the labels.I kept one and also a 7" burmese G&T.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbC1qtbV8GA

The title of this record is "sad songs"

[gramophone]

Here are two other seldom seen Chinese labels.

[MTPhono]

Reminds me of the Plastic Ono Band...

That is a really interesting recording. I haven't heard anything like it before. Thanks for the post and interesting background information.

[yesteryear1]

Here is some further translation and theory on the story line.

The first three lines are about the performer: "Great sounding, renowned female singer, Zhou Feng Lin".

The fourth line (in large font) is the song title which translated directly is "An Tang (convent) Xiang (appearance) Hui (meeting)". The connotation of the title is something like "Chance encounter at the convent."

The fifth line is Shang Hai.

Like most Chinese stories/operas it is probably a story about unrequited love. Teenagers fall in love, girls father doesn't approve of the boy and sends girl to distant convent. Years later by chance boy (now a man) arrives at convent and the two rediscover each other (girl probably ends up committing suicide because she can't resolve her love for the man and her loyalty to her family). The plot stuff is total conjecture but almost all Chinese stories are some variant of this theme.