When Hagenbeck’s Came to Shanghai, 1933

Reading Linda Simon’s excellent The Greatest Shows on Earth – A History of the Circus made me think of traditional western ringed circuses and Shanghai. Amazing to think that in 1933, just after the First Shanghai War, Hagenbeck’s Circus came to Shanghai from Japan on a world tour. In the first half of the twentieth century Hagenbeck’s Circus, based in Peru, Indiana, rivalled Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey for fame. And in 1933 it pitched up at the site of the Majestic Hotel on Bubbling Well Road, which had been pulled down and demolished just a year or two before. As Shanghai found itself in an economic depression after the 1932 Shanghai War, added to by the post 1929 depressions in America and Europe, nothing had been built on the site. It was a boggy flooded swamp after war and heavy rain but Hagenbeck’s drained it and pitched their tents.

Hagenbeck’s played to a mixed Chinese and foreign audience and despite the depression tickets sold well. The main draw was apparently an Indian elephant that wore a crown. the Shun Pao newspaper got political and likened the elephant passively following its trainers orders to the Chinese people. Lu Xun went and wrote a review of the show for the Shun Pao too. The circus eventually moved on but it had been the highlight of 1933 for thousands of Shanghai residents.